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Dec 3, 2020
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Usage Counts service: The analytics service of OpenAIRE Research Graph

Dec 3, 2020

Usage metrics for all types of scholarly output are one of the measures to assess Open Access impact and is a value added service of Open Access repositories. Towards realizing this task, OpenAIRE has developed the Usage Counts Service, providing usage metrics exploited by a large number of repositories from around the world.

What it isPoster UsageCounts

The OpenAIRE UsageCounts service collects usage data from repositories, journals and other scientific data sources, aggregates them and delivers standardized activity reports about research usage and uptake. It complements existing citation mechanisms and assists institutional repository managers, research communities, research organizations, funders and policy makers to track and evaluate research outputs from an early stage.

The Usage Counts service was presented in the poster session of RDA 16th Plenary Meeting. You can read the poster in Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/record/4268144

This service has been available through the OpenAIRE Provide - Dashboard for Content Providers -, from which content providers managers can enable the service and get usage statistics reports of their data sources.

Since October 2020, the Usage Counts Service has its own website - https://usagecounts.openaire.eu/ - where which users can find all the useful information about the service and also get statistics by country, as well as reports on the usage activity of selected Articles, Items (conference object, dataset, image, etc.), Journals, Repositories, Books and Book sections.

Who is it for and what do they get out of it?

Content Providers

  • Accurate and objective performance measures monitoring of repository content
  • Evidence based analytical metrics of views, downloads of research, aggregated from all over the world
  • Activity and trends of Open Science topics

Consumers

  • Overview of research outcomes per country or domain
  • Trustable, accurate statistics of Open Science research
  • Evaluate the result of invested funds, policies, measures and view impact

Main featuresusagecounts icon

  • Provides standards for usage data exchange (OpenAIRE Usage Statistics Guidelines)
  • Complies to COUNTER Code of Practice for reliable and comparable reports
  • Follows GDPR for trusted storage and processing of usage data
  • Offers global coverage by collecting and aggregating usage activity from partners around the world
  • Supports analysis via advanced visualizations
  • Exports different types of reports via standard APIs (Sushi-Lite)

Usage Counts Analytics

The service offers a set of analytics that can be used to evaluate the impact of usage activity. For example, Usage Activity by country is provided by a search interface at https://usagecounts.openaire.eu/analytics, through which users can find the number of repositories using the service, and the total number of views and downloads.

Example of usage statistics by country: Portugal
usage statistics by country

Regarding the statistics reports on the usage activity of specific items, users can get the following reports at https://usagecounts.openaire.eu/resources#apis:

  • AR-1 - Article Report 1
    Number of successful article download requests by month and repository
  • IR-1 - Item Report 1
    Number of successful item download requests by month and repository identifier
  • JR-1 - Journal Report 1
    Number of successful full-text article requests by month and journal
  • RR-1 - Repository Report 1
    Number of successful item downloads for all repositories participating in the usage statistics service
  • BR-1 - Book Report 1
    Number of successful book title requests by month and title
  • BR-2 - Book Report 2
    Number of successful book section requests by month and title

Note: Reports are available via a SUSHI-Lite Endpoint (anchor), complying with COUNTER CoP Release 4.

Users can get these statistics reports, both as data source manager through the Content Provider Dashboard, and as a regular user directly from the Usage Counts portal at https://usagecounts.openaire.eu/resources.

Are you a Content Provider Manager?

Know how to participate in the OpenAIRE Usage Counts Service.

If you want your repository to be part of the OpenAIRE Usage Counts Service, you need to follow these steps:

Once you perform these actions, the OpenAIRE technical team will validate the installation of the tracking code and inform you accordingly. You can find additional guidance in the service guide athttps://www.openaire.eu/guides-usage-counts

For more details about the workflows and tools please consult the “Guidelines for Collecting Usage Events and Provision of Usage Statistics”.

 

Public session on OpenAIRE Usage Counts service

The upcoming OpenAIRE Community Call for Content Providers, 2 December at 14:30 CET, will be focused on the Usage Counts service.

An excellent opportunity to know more about the service, give your feedback and put questions to the technical team.

Join the call and know more at https://www.openaire.eu/provide-community-calls

More information: