COUNTER REPORTING on SAE Mobilus®
Adhering to the latest reporting standards, fully compliant COUNTER 5 (C5) standards are now available on SAE Mobilus® to help subscribing universities and institutions understand what and how users access content on the platform.
More information on the compliance status is available on the official Counter website: Counter registry - SAE Mobilus
Also, please do check out some useful resources to get started:
SAE Mobilus Counter Getting Started Guide
SAE Mobilus Counter Tips
Common FAQs -
Q. What is COUNTER?
COUNTER is a non-profit organization that provides the Code of Practice that ensures publishers are providing customers with consistent, credible, and comparable usage data. To learn more, visit https://www.projectcounter.org/
Q. Who has access to COUNTER reports?
Individuals listed as an Administrator on a SAE Mobilus subscription, have access to view the COUNTER reports through the Dashboard. The reports are made available free to our subscribing entities.
Q. What version of COUNTER reports are currently available on SAE Mobilus?
Latest version (Counter 5): Fully Compliant C5 reports are accessible via the Admin dashboards on SAE Mobilus. The data for the C5 reports can be extracted beginning June 2021 and the usage data for a given month is usually available by the 10th of the following month. The reports provided are developed as per the Counter Code of Practice for Release 5 (COP5) specifications by COUNTER (visit https://www.projectcounter.org/code-of-practice-five-sections/abstract/ for more information).
Historical versions (Counter 4): Beginning January 01, 2022, new Counter 4 reports are not generated. However, Administrators can still access the COUNTER 4 (C4) reports ran until December 31, 2021 via the Mobilus dashboard. The C4 reports were first available via SAE Mobilus from January 1, 2017, and contain data from December 2016 onwards. SAE discontinued COUNTER 3 reporting on December 31, 2016.
Q. Is Sushi Harvesting available for the Counter reports? How can I set it up?
Yes, Counter 5 reports are compliant and made available via Sushi harvesting. Details with regards to configuration are available on: Configuring Sushi for Counter 5
Q. What are the differences between COUNTER 5 and COUNTER 4 reports?
Compared to Counter 4, Counter 5 reports enable a user to:
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Select a Range: Can choose multiple months that you’re interested in before generating the selected report (once we have more months of data generated)
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Customize Report outputs: Choose/remove columns you’d like before generating a report. The options available would pop up based off the report you’ve selected.
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Choose your preferred output format: CSV or JSON, or a unique SUSHI API key for your subscription. You may need to check with your SUSHI vendor for specific instructions on retrieving COUNTER 5 reports.
These are also differences to be noted in some of the definitions and usage of terms across reports. We suggest reading of additional resources (such as comparison report) to become more familiar with the usage of Counter 5 reports.
Q. What reports are available with COUNTER 5?
There are a total of 15 reports available for a subscription, that includes 4 master reports (platform, database, title, item) and 11 other reports
Report Title |
Report Description |
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Platform Master Report |
A customizable report summarizing activity across a content provider’s platforms that allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options |
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Database Master Report |
A customizable report detailing activity by database that allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options |
|
Title Master Report |
A customizable report detailing activity at the title level (journal, book, etc.) that allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options |
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Item Master Report |
A granular, customizable report showing activity at the level of the item (article, chapter, media object, etc.) that allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options |
|
Platform Usage |
Platform-level usage summarized by Metric_Type |
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Database Search and |
Reports on key Searches, Investigations and Requests metrics needed to evaluate a database |
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Database Access Denied |
Reports on Access Denied activity for databases |
|
Book Requests |
Reports on full-text activity for books, excluding Gold Open Access content, as Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Title_Requests. The Unique_Title_Requests provides comparable usage across book platforms. The Total_Item_Requests shows overall activity; however, numbers between sites will vary significantly based on how the content is delivered (e.g. delivered as a complete book or by chapter) |
|
Book Access Denied |
Reports on Access Denied activity for books where users were denied access because simultaneous-use licenses were exceeded or their institution did not have a license for the book |
|
Book Usage by |
Reports on book usage showing all applicable Metric_Types broken down by Access_Type |
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Journal Requests (Excluding OA_Gold) |
Reports on usage of journal content, excluding Gold Open Access content, as Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests. The Unique_Item_Requests provides comparable usage across journal platforms by reducing the inflationary effect that occurs when an HTML full text automatically displays and the user then accesses the PDF version. The Total_Item_Requests shows overall activity |
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Journal Access Denied |
Reports on Access Denied activity for journal content where users were denied access because simultaneous-use licenses were exceeded or their institution did not have a license for the title |
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Journal Usage by |
Reports on usage of journal content for all Metric_Types broken down by Access_Type |
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Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding OA_Gold) |
Breaks down the usage of journal content, excluding Gold Open Access content, by year of publication (YOP), providing counts for the Metric_Types Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests Provides the details necessary to analyze usage of content in backfiles or covered by perpetual access agreements. Note that COUNTER reports do not provide access model or perpetual access rights details |
|
Multimedia Item Requests |
Reports on multimedia requests at the item level |