OTHER ARTICLE
Item-level usage statistics
A review of current practices and
recommendations for normalization and
exchange
Christine Merk
University of Konstanz, Sontheim, Germany
Frank Scholze
Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Wu¨ rttemberg, Stuttgart,
Germany, and
Nils Windisch
Go¨ ttingen University and State Library, Go¨ ttingen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present how the JISC Usage Statistics Review Project aims
to formulate a fundamental scheme for recording usage data and to propose a standard for its
aggregation to provide meaningful and comparable item-level usage statistics for electronic
documents such as, for example, research papers and scientific resources.
Design/methodology/approach – A core element of the project has been a stakeholder workshop.
This workshop was held in Berlin, 7/8 July 2008. Representatives of key stakeholder groups
(repositories, libraries, COUNTER, IRStats, JISC, LogEc, MESUR, OA-Statistics and other Open
Access projects) were invited. During the workshop a fundamental scheme for the recording and the
exchange of log files was discussed as well as the normalization of data collected.
Findings – The following mandatory elements describing usage events were agreed during the
stakeholder workshop: Who – identification of user/session, What – item identification and type of
request performed (e.g. full-text, front-page, including failed/partially fulfilled requests), When – date
and time, usage event ID. The following elements were regarded as optional: From where –
referrer/the referring entity and identity of the service. Usage events should be exchanged in the form
of OpenURL Context Objects using OAI. Automated access (e.g. robots) should be tagged. The
definition of automated access has to be straightforward with an option of gradual refinement. Users
have to be identified unambiguously, but without recording personal data to avoid conflicts with
privacy laws. Policies on statistics should be formulated for the repository community as well as the
publishing community. Information about statistics policies should be available on services like
OpenDOAR and RoMEO.
Originality/value – The paper is based on the detailed project report to the JISC, available at http://
ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/250/
Keywords Data analysis, Statistics, Information exchange
Paper type Case study
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Frank Scholze is winner of the inaugural German Library Hi Tech Award (2008).
Item-level usage
statistics
151
Received 5 December 2008
Accepted 8 December 2008
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 27 No. 1, 2009
pp. 151-162
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830910942991

1. Introduction
The promise of usage data for scholarly evaluation lies in its timeliness. Unlike
citation-based statistics, counts and rankings can be updated soon after the actual
usage event. Usage data can be the basis for calculating the visibility and hence the
impact of electronic publications. Metrics based on usage data can provide transparent
information for authors about how visible or how popular their work is. This can
support authors’ decisions about where to publish. Readers can evaluate a publication
or an author on this basis. However usage data is not used widely in the daily routine of
scholarly evaluation. Bollen et al. (2007) lists four main issues as reason for this, the
most basic being the lack of standards for recording and aggregating usage data. To
address this, the JISC Usage Statistics Review Project aims to formulate a fundamental
scheme for recording usage data and to propose a standard for its aggregation to
provide meaningful and comparable item-level usage statistics for electronic
documents like research papers and journal articles.
The project was funded by JISC and conducted by a research consortium in which
the Humboldt University Berlin (Computer and Media Service), the Go¨ttingen
University and State Library, the Library of the University of Konstanz, the Saarland
State and University Library and Stuttgart University Library worked together.
A core element of this review has been a stakeholder workshop. It was held in Berlin
on July 7th and 8th 2008. Representatives of key stakeholder groups (repositories,
libraries, COUNTER, IRStats, JISC, LogEc, MESUR, OA-Statistics and other Open
Access projects) were invited.
This paper gives a short overview of current projects, services and initiatives in the
field of collecting usage data for online scientific publications. This is followed by a
presentation of the workshop results dealing with the technical aspects of normalizing,
exchanging and mapping usage data. Then legal and policy issues about the recording
of usage data are described, and finally the future development of services in this field
is envisioned.
2. Review of current practices
The DRIVER inventory study (Eijndhoven and van der Graaf, 2007) of 114 repositories
in 17 European countries showed that about 70 percent of those repositories logged
download and access data, but only 30 percent offered item-level usage statistics for
their end-users in 2006. About half the repositories which had such a service were
based in the UK and a quarter of all repositories in the survey were planning their
introduction.
In the context of this review, we selected a number of existing approaches and
projects on measuring electronic usage and had a look at their practices.
IRStats (Interoperable Repository Statistics) is a project at the University of
Southampton aimed at the design of a usage statistics module for repositories using
eprints or Dspace. The result of the project is a pilot version of the statistics tool at the
eprints-repository at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University
of Southampton. The tool excludes multiple clicks within 24 hours and uses the
AWStats-robots list to delete non-human access. So far, the package cannot be
implemented on a broad level and can only be operated as an add-on to AWStats
LogEc is a free online service which complements the metadata aggregator RepEc,
which specializes in economic literature. LogEc provides the statistics for items
LHT
27,1
152