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Document history Document history

Document History

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Abstract Abstract

Abstract

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Virtually all web servers that provide access to electronic resources record usage events as part of their log files. Such files usually provide detailed information on the documents that have been requested, on the users that have initiated these requests, and on the moments at which these requests took place. One important difficulty is the fact that these logs are usually structured according to a proprietary format. Before usage data from different institutions can be compared in a meaningful and consistent way, the log entries need to be standardised and normalised. Various projects have investigated how such data harmonisation can take place. In the MESUR project, usage data have been standardised by serialising the information from log files as XML files structured according to the OpenURL Context Objects schema (Bollen and Van de Sompel, 2006). This same standard is recommended in the JISC Usage Statistics Final Report. Using this metadata standard, it becomes possible to set up an infrastructure in which usage data are aggregated within a network of distributed repositories. The PIRUS-I project (Publishers and Institutional Repository Usage Statistics), which was funded by JISC, has investigated how such exchange of usage data can take place. An important outcome of this project was a range of scenarios for the "creation, recording and consolidation of individual article usage statistics that will cover the majority of current repository installations" .

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"Developing a global standard to enable the recording, reporting and consolidation of online usage statistics for individual journal articles hosted by institutional repositories, publishers and other entities (Final Report)",  p.3. < http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/pals3/pirus_finalreport.pdf >

In Europe, at least three projects have experimented with these recommendations and have actually implemented infrastructures for the central accumulation of usage data. Firstly, the German OA-Statistics project, which is funded DINI (Deutsche Initiative fur Netzwerk Information), has set up an infrastructure in which various certified repositories across Germany can exchange their usage data. In the Netherlands, the project Statistics on the Usage of Repositories (SURE) has a very similar objective. The project, which is funded by SURFfoundation, aimed to find a method for the creation of reliable and mutually comparable usage statistics and has implemented a national infrastructure for the accumulation of usage data. Thirdly, the Network of European Economists Online (NEEO) is an international consortium of 18 universities which maintains a subject repository that provides access to the results of economic research. As part of this project, extensive guidelines have been developed for the creation of usage statistics.

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