COUNTER Code of Practice: status report

["Gillingham Emily" <Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com>]

***Latest news from Project COUNTER***

Since the publication of Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice this
January, a growing number of vendors have either achieved, or are working
towards achieving, COUNTER-compliant status.  A Register of Vendors
providing COUNTER-compliant Usage Reports has now been added to the
COUNTER website: http://www.projectCounter.org

In order to become COUNTER-compliant for 2003, vendors must a) Sign a
Declaration of COUNTER Compliance, b) submit this to the COUNTER Office
and c) allow COUNTER access to the usage reports for which
COUNTER-compliant status is claimed.  When we are satisfied that these
usage reports comply with the specifications of the Code of Practice, the
vendor will be added to the Register.

>From 2004 onwards, auditing of the usage reports by an independent,
COUNTER-approved, auditor will be required in order to maintain this
compliant status. Information on the auditing process will be published in
the course of 2003, along with a list of approved auditors.

*****

Release 1 of the Code of Practice will be valid until the end of 2004.  
Release 2, to be published in January 2004, will become the valid Code of
Practice in January 2005.  This will give vendors one year to work towards
compliance with Release 2.

*****

The first vendors to become compliant have also provided useful feedback
which has enabled us to enhance the Code of Practice and to clarify some
issues associated with it.

The first set of Guidelines on Implementation has been published as
Appendix D to the Code of Practice.  These are designed to provide more
detail to assist vendors with implementation and include information on
the specific return codes that indicate a successful request to a web
server.

A set of errata have also been included as Appendix C to the Code of
Practice.

*****
For more information, please contact:
Peter Shepherd
Project Director - COUNTER
pshepherd@projectCounter.org 
<mailto:pshepherd@projectCounter.org>