RE: Usage statistics as a measure of value

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

This problem is of interest to both librarians and publishers.

COUNTER is preparing to extend its reporting to include open access
materials.  Arthur Sale and I are currently working on a rough draft for a
Code of Practice for Institutional Repositories. It will make an attempt
at solving the basic problem of OA statistics: whom to send them to, as
there are no subscriber lists. For details, watch for the proposal in
coming months.

I intend next to work, hopefully with a partner, on a standard for OA
Journals (by which in this context I mean "Gold" OA Journals with a
distinguishable publisher) which will build on this.  I welcome
suggestions and offers of assistance, off-line please,

We have not yet discussed extending this work to OA versions of articles
from other than the primary publisher, but --speaking personally-- it is
the obvious subsequent step. I would be interested in hearing-- off line--
about plans that particular repositories may be currently considering.  I
and others at COUNTER are very glad to work with outside partners, and
there is great utility in standardization or at least compatibility.

One problem is that COUNTER does not provide for the combination of data
about the same journal as obtained from different sources, even
conventional sources such as from both Highwire and Ingenta. The libraries
receive the reports from each source, and must combine them locally.  
(For details, see the Code of Practice, at http://www.projectcounter.org/
)This approach is obviously much more problematic for OA material, and for
different versions of material.

This is not an official statement of COUNTER, though I am the member of
their Executive Committee delegated to keep track of the possibilities for
OA statistics.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Heather Morrison
Sent: Wed 2/9/2005 6:58 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Usage statistics as a measure of value
 ...

Heather G. Morrison
Project Coordinator
BC Electronic Library Network
Email:  heatherm@eln.bc.ca
Web: http://www.eln.bc.ca