Second Academy course sees high completion and positive impact

The second COUNTER Academy course, which finished in June, saw a high completion rate of 80%, echoing the high completion rate we saw with our first course. Congratulations to all our latest Academy completers! The Academy is also already having positive impact on participants and their organisations. Participants said the 16-week online course improved their confidence with COUNTER, often revealing things they had not realised they did not know.

“[It] delved into the right depth of the subject without it becoming too overwhelming. I liked that participants were given the opportunity to ask questions, for clarification, at the Live Q&As.”

Many participants began using their learning while doing the course. They told us they are already using their new skills to generate more detailed reports; combine usage metrics with other data; and improve internal processes. The course has also given participants confidence in presenting COUNTER statistics and training colleagues.

Another side benefit of the Academy has been the connections that participants have made with each others. Some told us they have begun working with others on their course in different organisations, while others shared how they are building up internal networks of COUNTER colleagues.

“I thought this was a really good course and would recommend to others, especially if you don’t know much about COUNTER.“

Suggestions for COUNTER

As part of the final reflections on the course, we asked participants for their suggestions for COUNTER to tackle in the future. Suggestions included encouraging more publishers to adopt COUNTER – and to follow the technical rules better; improvements to the Registry; and continuing technical focus on emerging issues such as AI, as well as different content types. There is also interest in a follow-on course to extend knowledge for people who have already completed the Academy.

Future courses

We are now a month into our third COUNTER Academy course, and our fourth will start in February 2027. If you are interested in the COUNTER Academy, register interest using the button below. The Academy is a member benefit – learn more about COUNTER membership.

Thank you to our sponsors

Thanks to support from our sponsors, so far we have been able to provide a free space to one librarian from every member library that has applied. For our February 2026 course, our sponsors were Thieme, Scholarly IQ and APS. And thank you to Cambridge University Press for sponsoring the creation of the course materials.

If you would like to become an Academy sponsor, contact tasha@countermetrics.org.