The Draft Release 1 of the Code of Practice for Usage Factors is now available for comment and may be accessed on the Usage Factor page of the COUNTER website at: http://www.projectcounter.org/usage_factor.html .
This Draft Release 1 is one of the most significant outcomes to-date of the Usage Factor project, and is an important part of this, the final Stage of the project, which will take Usage Factor towards full implementation. This Draft Release 1 is based on well-established COUNTER standards, procedures and protocols; it is designed to enable the recording and reporting by publishers of credible, consistent and compatible global Usage Factors for online publications hosted by them (and incorporating usage of these publications on other platforms that are capable of delivering COUNTER-compliant usage statistics). While Release 1 of this Code of Practice focuses on Usage Factors for journals, it is envisaged that its scope will be extended in subsequent Releases to cover other online publications, such as books and reference works.
The development of the Code of Practice for Usage Factors is designed to be an open, transparent process, and input from individual researchers and practitioners, as well as from librarians, publishers and other information professionals, is actively encouraged. Our purpose in publishing this Draft Release 1 now, is threefold: first, it sets out a formal, detailed standard for the recording, reporting and maintenance of Usage Factors, solidly based on the outcomes of Stages 1 and 2 of the Usage Factor project; second, it provides a document for interested parties to review and comment upon; third, it provides a framework for selected publishers and other organizations to do more extensive testing of the proposed processes for calculating and reporting Usage Factors.
The Draft Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Usage Factors will be available for comment on the COUNTER website at: http://www.projectcounter.org/usage_factor.html until 30 September 2012. Comments should be sent to Peter Shepherd, COUNTER Director, at: pshepherd@projectCounter.org . Feedback received will be reviewed by the Usage Factor International Advisory Board and will be taken into account in the development of the definitive version of the Code of Practice for Usage Factors.
About Usage Factor
The overall aim of the Usage Factor project is to explore how online usage statistics might form the basis of a new measure of impact and quality of journals and other online publications, the Usage Factor (UF). The project was launched by UKSG in 2007 and is now managed by COUNTER, with the guidance of an International Advisory Board. The main project outcome will be a COUNTER Code of Practice for Usage Factors, which will enable publishers and other organizations to calculate and report statistically robust Usage Factors in a consistent and cost-effective way.
For more information, please visit the Usage Factor page of the COUNTER website at: http://www.projectcounter.org/usage_factor.html
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