1. Credentials
1.1. Counter 5 Service
Institution Credentials:
Username and password are identical to your Library Backoffice credentials: https://freemium.openedition.org/library
Consortium credentials:
Ask for your credentials by email at the following address: assistance-abonnes@openedition.org
1.2. Sushi API
Documentation URL: https://counter5.openedition.org/api/doc
Institution Credentials:
requestor_id
: identical to your Library Backoffice Username: https://freemium.openedition.org/libraryapi_key
: you can retrieve and regenerate your API Key in your Library backoffice:API Menu > Authentication Key.
If it is not generated or if you want to modify it, click on Generate a new key.
customer_id
: identical torequestor_id
.
Consortium credentials:
Ask for your credentials by email at the following address: assistance-abonnes@openedition.org
2. Available Reports
Available reports are presented below. Each Report is provided in the form of a Master Report, customizable with parameters, and Standard Views where Metric Types, filters and attributes are preselected.
The Metric Types are usage metrics defined by Counter. You will find below a description of each.
Using a filter in a Master Report limits the content of the report to a particular criterion. For example the choice of a filter YOP=2020
(Year Of Publication) will limit the report to content published in 2020.
Using an attribute in a Master Report distribute each metric according to this attribute. For example, choosing a YOP (Year Of Publication
) attribute for a TR report will return the metrics for each type broken down by year of publication.
2.1. Platform Reports
2.1.1. PR | Platform Master Report
A customizable report summarizing activity across a content provider’s platforms that allows the user to apply filters and attributes.
Type :
Master Report
Available Metric Types :
Total_Item_Investigations
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Investigations
Unique_Item_Requests
Unique_Title_Investigations
Unique_Title_Requests
Searches_Platform
Available Filters :
Data_Type
Access_Method
Available Attributes :
Data_Type
Access_Method
2.1.2. PR_P1 | Platform Usage
Platform-level usage summarized by Metric Type.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Requests
Unique_Title_Requests
Preselected Filters :
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
none
2.2. Title Reports
2.2.1. TR | Title Master Report
Customizable report detailing activity at the title level (journal, book) that allows the user to apply filters and attributes.
Type :
Master Report
Available Metric Types :
Total_Item_Investigations
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Investigations
Unique_Item_Requests
Unique_Title_Investigations
Unique_Title_Requests
No_License
Limit_Exceeded
Available Filters :
Data_Type
Section_Type
YOP
Access_Type
Access_Method
Available Attributes :
Data_Type
Section_Type
YOP
Access_Type
Access_Method
2.2.2. TR_B1 | Book Requests (Excluding OA_Gold)
Reports on full-text activity for books, excluding Gold Open Access content, as Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Title_Requests.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Title_Requests
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Book
Access_Type=Controlled
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
YOP
2.2.3. TR_B2 | Book Access Denied
Reports on Access Denied activity for books where users were denied access because their institution did not have a license for the book. OpenEdition does not limit the number of simultaneous accesses to a resource. The Metric_Type Limit_Exceeded does not return any results.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
No_License
Limit_Exceeded
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Book
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
YOP
2.2.4. TR_B3 | Book Usage by Access Type
Reports on book usage showing all applicable Metric_Types broken down by Access_Type.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
Total_Item_Investigations
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Investigations
Unique_Item_Requests
Unique_Title_Investigations
Unique_Title_Requests
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Book
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
YOP
Access_Type
2.2.5. TR_J1 | Journal Requests (Excluding OA_Gold)
Reports on usage of journal content, excluding Gold Open Access content, as Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Requests
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Journal
Access_Type=Controlled
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
none
2.2.6. TR_J2 | Journal Access Denied
Reports on Access Denied activity for journal content where users were denied access because their institution did not have a license for the title. OpenEdition does not limit the number of simultaneous accesses to a resource. The Metric_Type Limit_Exceeded does not return any results.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
No_License
Limit_Exceeded
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Journal
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
none
2.2.7. TR_J3 | Journal Usage by Access Type
Reports on usage of journal content for all Metric_Types broken down by Access_Type (Controlled or OA_Gold).
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
Total_Item_Investigations
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Investigations
Unique_Item_Requests
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Journal
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
Access_Type
2.2.8. TR_J4 | Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding OA_Gold)
Breaks down the usage of journal content, excluding Gold Open Access content, by year of publication (YOP), providing counts for the Metric_Types Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests.
Type :
Standard View
Preselected Metric Types :
Total_Item_Requests
Unique_Item_Requests
Preselected Filters :
Data_Type=Journal
Access_Type=Controlled
Access_Method=Regular
Preselected Attributes :
YOP
3. Metric types
3.1. Investigations / Requests
The Counter 5 specification divides the consultation of content elements according to the types Request and Investigation.
A Request is an access to a full text content item: an article in HTML or PDF, a full journal issue in PDF, a book chapter or a full book, in HTML, PDF or ePub.
An Investigation is an access to a full-text content item OR to information presenting that content item: access to journal issue or book, access to abstracts of moving wall articles, access to abstracts of books an book chapters in exclusive access. Note that Requests accesses are also counted in Investigations.
You can read the complete and illustrated description formulated by Counter at the following URL: https://www.projectcounter.org/code-of-practice-five-sections/3-0-technical-specifications/#commonattributes.
3.2. Total_Item_Investigations and Total_Item_Requests
The Total_Item_Investigations and Total_Item_Requests metrics count all accesses to a resource. When a user is accessing a resource (an article, a book or a chapter of a book…) several times during a user session, each access to this resource is counted in Total_Item_*. Eventual double clicks are ignored.
3.3. Unique_Item_Investigations and Unique_Item_Requests
The Unique_Item_Investigations and Unique_Item_Requests metrics count the number of content items (chapters, articles, etc.) accessed, considered only once by user session.
3.4. Unique_Title_Investigations et Unique_Title_Requests
The metrics Unique_Title_Investigations and Unique_Title_Requests are only applicable for books. They measure the number of unique accesses to a book during a user session. Thus, a reader’s accesses to 3 chapters of a full-text book during a user session will only be counted once in the Unique_Title_Requests metric.
3.4.1. User session
Used in the Unique_* measurements computation, a user session is defined by 3 criteria:
the user IP address;
the user-agent;
the date + the time of the visit (between 0 and 23; minutes and seconds are not considered)
This is a session approximation. Indeed, OpenEdition does not record the user sessions of the readers. This method is valid according to the Counter 5 Code of Practice: 7.3 Counting Unique Items.
3.5. No_License
Records access denied to a resource in restricted access. On OpenEdition, this can be:
journal articles under embargo;
articles or journal issues in PDF or ePub format for journals of the Open Access Freemium bundle, for non-subscribing institutions;
books or chapters of books in restricted access, not acquired by the institution;
books or book chapters in PDF or ePub format in restricted access or Open Access Freemium, not acquired by the institution.
3.6. Limit_Exceeded
OpenEdition ne limite pas le nombre d’accès simultanés à une ressource. Le Metric_Type Limit_Exceeded ne renvoie donc aucun résultat.
3.7. Searches_Platform
User searches available at the Platform level only.
On OpenEdition, this matches the searches done :
on OpenEdition Search (https://search.openedition.org);
in the journal catalog (https://www.openedition.org/catalogue-journals);
in the book catalog (https://books.openedition.org/catalogue);
in a particular book (e.g. https://books.openedition.org/oep/8713?query=archive).
4. Sushi API
The Sushi API documentation is available at this address: https://counter5.openedition.org/api/doc.
5. Counter 5 and OpenEdition Freemium
Journals and books published in Open Access Freemium are available in open access in HTML format and in restricted access for PDF and ePub formats. As a result, and following the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group Counter:
Requests on HTML content are counted with an Access_Type=’OA_Gold’.
Requests on PDF and ePub content are counted with an Access_Type=’Controlled’.
A subscribing institution will therefore be able to observe in its Counter 5 reports, for the same journal, requests having for Access*_Type “OA_Gold” (requests for HTML versions) AND requests having for *Access_Type “Controlled” (requests for PDF and ePub versions).
6. Date of report availability and response time
6.1. Dates and availability of reports
The Reports are available as of July 2020.
Reports for a given month are available from the 5th of the following month.
Reports are available for 2 years plus the current year. Thus, reports for January 2021 and February 2021 will be available until 12/31/2023. It will not be possible to get the reports once the availability period has expired. Therefore, the data will have to be harvested beforehand.
6.2. Response time and caching
This service handles large volumes of data and can require significant computing time.
If the computing time of a report exceeds the limit defined by Counter 5 (120 sec.), the application will send a warning inviting you to reexecute your request. In this case, the calculation of the report continues in background and when you re-execute the request after a few minutes, the application will have the pre-calculated report and will be able to return it to you.
This behavior also applies to Sushi which will return the exception 1011 defined by Counter 5: https://www.projectcounter.org/appendix-f-handling-errors-exceptions/
The computing time depends on the complexity and size of the requested report, in particular the simultaneous use of several attributes, the use of time ranges of several months, reports for consortia.
To facilitate the use of the application, the reports of the last months (about 4 last months) are pre-cached (in cache memory). The response time is therefore significantly improved for recent months. For older reports, patience is required.
7. Certification
OpenEdition’s Counter 5 service is regularly certified by an independent audit.