OpenEdition analytics: COUNTER 5 certification

OpenEdition’s COUNTER 5–compliant analytics tool was recently certified by an independent audit. The tool is based on ezPAARSE technology developed by INIST-CNRS and the Couperin Consortium and generates customized reports for OpenEdition Freemium partner institutions. It was made possible by funding from a French government program for science journals and in close collaboration with the ezPAARSE team. It is part of OpenEdition’s plan to modernize our statistical tools.

OpenEdition analytics tools

Institutions (libraries) that subscribe to the OpenEdition Freemium program can view their usage statistics in COUNTER format (version 4 starting in 2010 and version 5 starting in 2021). Our analytics tool tallies views of OpenEdition Journals and Books by the institution’s users. By using a standard format, institutions can compare statistics between content providers.

Publishers of journals, books, and research blogs can see usage statistics for their entire website or for specific URLs. Statistics are currently generated by AWStats software and are publicly available at https://logs.openedition.org. They help publishers understand things like trends in site traffic, reading habits, and reader types and locations. The tool also lets journal and book publishers see analytics for their publications, such as total views for each chapter of a book, each book in a collection, and each article in an issue, as well as a breakdown of views in HTML, PDF, and EPUB formats.

New and improved analytics

COUNTER 5

The COUNTER 5 analytics tool was developed in 2020 as part of OpenEdition’s partnership with the Couperin Consortium and INIST-CNRS. It was rolled out to users in January 2021 and certified by an independent audit in April 2021, as required by the COUNTER standard.

The COUNTER Code of Practice, a detailed description of the COUNTER 5 standard, is available online.

Now that it is certified, OpenEdition is one of many websites that are officially compatible with COUNTER.

Reports in COUNTER format consist of a monthly summary of views by book, journal, or view type. Meanwhile, SUSHI API lets a client application query the service to retrieve reports in COUNTER 5 format and import them into an analytics system, such as the ezMESURE national consortium repository.

Certification was granted by an independent firm logging in as a partner institution. The firm viewed books and journals published on OpenEdition and then verified that the traffic reports were accurate and that the reports were in the correct format. The certification, which includes the SUSHI protocol, ensures that the standard is followed and that institutions will be able to track and compare results uniformly across content providers.

Documentation: https://counter5-openedition.readthedocs.io

View the analytics tool (for subscribing institutions only): https://counter5.openedition.org

View the SUSHI API (for subscribing institutions only): https://counter5.openedition.org/api/doc

Phasing out COUNTER 4

Statistics will be calculated in COUNTER 4 format until June 2021. COUNTER 4 statistics will remain available until December 2021. Between January and December 2022, COUNTER 4 reports for January 2019–June 2021 will be available upon request in CSV format.

Next steps

Traffic and usage statistics tools for publishers will also be upgraded, although the timetable is still to be determined. Improvements will focus on technology and will allow the use of COUNTER 5 principles (metric type, access type, etc.), providing better filtering of non-meaningful traffic (bots), better compliance with personal data protection rules, and a more modern user interface.

OpenEdition will also participate in the ReadMETRICS program led by Couperin. It will analyze publishers’ (i.e., OpenEdition’s) logs with help from ezPAARSE and compare them to analyses by subscribing institutions. The results will focus on the quality of the statistics and on generating indicators for the use of open-access resources.

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