--News Release--
The final version of Release 2 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for
Journals and Databases has now been published and is available on the
COUNTER website at http://www.projectCounter.org
This Release will replace Release 1 from January 1st 2006, giving
vendors the remainder of 2005 to meet its specifications.
There are no new usage reports in Release 2, but the existing reports
have been modified to provide additional information that has been
consistently requested by librarians since the publication of Release 1.
The majority of the other changes in Release 2 are designed to provide
more specific instructions to assist vendors to create completely
COUNTER-compliant usage reports, and to enable customers to use them. To
this end, examples of the prescribed usage reports are provided in both
Excel and CSV formats. In summary, the key new features in Release 2
are:
* Additional columns in the usage reports that indicate the
'Publisher' and 'Platform' of the database or journal. This will help
libraries to collate and measure ALL instances of usage of any database
or journal.
* A modified Journal Report 1 that includes two additional columns
of data reporting YTD html and PDF full-text request totals separately.
* A more detailed specification for consortium level reporting.
* A description of the auditing standards and procedures to be
followed. Vendors will be required to have their Release 2 usage reports
audited before 30 June 2007 and once per calendar year from 2008
onwards.
* Journal Report 3 and 4, which are not required for COUNTER
compliance, have been moved to Appendix H of the Code of Practice.
--About COUNTER--
COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a
multi-agency initiative whose objective is to develop a set of
internationally accepted, extendible Codes of Practice that will allow
the usage of online information products and services to be measured
more consistently. Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for
journals and databases was published in January 2003 and is now widely
implemented. COUNTER is actively supported by the international
community of librarians and publishers, and by their professional
organisations.
For more information, please contact:
Peter Shepherd
Project Director - COUNTER
[log in to unmask]
|