Compliance with the COUNTER Code of Practice

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

**News Release from COUNTER:

Since its launch in January 2003, over 30 major vendors, both publishers
and intermediaries, have joined the official Register of COUNTER Compliant
vendors, which is available on the COUNTER website at
http://www.projectCounter.org. These vendors include major learned
societies as well as the leading commercial publishers of journals and
databases. The journal publishers now on the Register account for over 50%
of the annual output of articles currently included in the Science
Citation Index. This is a measure of the enormous impact that COUNTER is
already having.

The apparent simplicity of the Usage Reports specified in the COUNTER Code
of Practice does not imply that it is an easy task for vendors to comply
with their specifications. Indeed, several vendors on the Register
continue to have problems with the format and presentation of their
COUNTER usage reports. COUNTER has set a testing standard and we are
actively working with these vendors to enable them to comply fully. The
COUNTER library test sites, set up in February 2004, monitor the vendors'
usage reports and have been providing very useful feedback on them.

Based on advice from libraries and vendors, we have decided to improve the
COUNTER compliance process in two ways. First, vendor products, rather
than vendors, will be registered as COUNTER compliant: this reflects
reality. Few vendors will be COUNTER compliant for all their online
products and services. Second, vendors seeking to be added to the COUNTER
Register will be required to provide at least one of the COUNTER library
test sites with access to their usage reports for up to three months
before being added to the Register.

These procedures are published on the COUNTER website
(http://www.projectCounter.org) and are effective from 1 August 2004. They
will enable COUNTER to provide more support to vendors during the
compliance process and to provide customers with more precise information
on compliance status.
 
**About COUNTER:

COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a
multi-agency initiative whose objective is to develop a single,
internationally accepted, extendible Code of Practice that will allow the
usage of online information products and services to be measured more
consistently.  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 
pshepherd@projectCounter.org