An update on PIRUS2 and article level usage statistics
The PIRUS2 (Publisher and Insitutional Repository Usage Statistics) project - which I blogged about briefly in September and which is exploring technical, organisational and economic issues in collecting and aggregating article usage statistics from repositories and publishers - has now been underway for a few months.
The project plan is available from the JISC Web site, with further information available from the project Web site. The primary partners in this project are MIMAS, Cranfield University, COUNTER, CrossRef and Oxford University Press - which means that it is well placed to consider the many issues to which the collection, aggregation and use of article level statistics gives rise.
PIRUS2 is not alone in considering these issues and is in contact with the Open Access Statistik and SURFSure projects in Germany and the Netherlands respectively which are also working on collecting article level usage data from repositories. The projects are taking similar technical approaches. One key decision - which is in line with a recommendation of the JISC usage statistics review of 2008 - has been to format log data as OpenURL context objects. One explanation of OpenURL context objects can be found on the SURF Web site. Other standards being used are OAI-PMH and SUSHI for harvesting the usage data.
PIRUS2 continues to the end of 2010.
‘Article level’ usage statistics from publishers and repositories
Usage statistics for electronic journals are increasingly standardised and usable thanks to the collaborative efforts of publishers, other information providers and librarians in developing and implementing the COUNTER codes of practice.
But what do you do if you need usage statistics for individual articles by a particular author published across different journals and also held across different institutional or subject repositories? This question is increasingly relevant when considering how to measure the ‘impact’ of research, for example.
The PIRUS (Publisher and Institutional Repository Usage Statistics ) project explored how usage statistics for individual articles could be collected from repositories and publishers and then combined to produce consolidated usage reports. PIRUS proposed a number of ways in which this could be done. A report was published in January 2009.
Now this work is to continue with a follow-on project - PIRUS2 - which has the following main objectives. To:
• Develop a suite of free, open source programmes to support the generation and sharing of COUNTER compliant usage data and statistics that can be extended to cover any and all individual items in institutional and subject repositories
• Develop a prototype article level publisher/repository statistics service
• Define a core set of standard useful statistical reports that repositories could/should produce for internal and external consumption
The project formally starts on 1st October 2009 and finishes as the end of 2010.
There are a number of project partners, the main ones being: MIMAS, Cranfield University (Library & Information Services), COUNTER, CrossRef and Oxford University Press.
This post is just to alert you to the existence of the project. More information about the project will be made available on the JISC Web site in due course.