CODE OF PRACTICE
COUNTER exists to bring the knowledge community together to agree and adopt the global standard for measuring and reporting content usage through normalised metrics, and we do that by developing, maintaining and extending the Code of Practice.
On this page you’ll find links to Release 5.1 (the current Code), Release 5 (the previous Code, required until March 2025), and the Code of Practice for Research Data (the current Code for data repositories).
We also have archival copies of old Codes available at the bottom of the page for those who are interested in reading them, as well as a page listing tools and services that you might find helpful.
Current Codes of Practice
Release 5.1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice was published in 2022. Compliance is required for reporting periods from January 2025. The current iteration is Release 5.1.0.1, the full text of which is freely available on Read the Docs. There are Friendly Guides and other materials for Release 5.1 on our Education pages.
Release 5 of the Code of Practice was published in 2017 with compliance required from January 2019. Report providers had to offer Release 5-compliant reports for reporting periods until March 2025. The last iteration, Release 5.0.3, can be read in full on Read the Docs.
The Code of Practice for Research Data was published in 2018.
It is designed for use by research data repositories
The COUNTER API (sushi)
The COUNTER API (which used to be called sushi) helps libraries collect their COUNTER reports from publishers automatically. There’s more information about using the COUNTER API in our Friendly Guide to Working With COUNTER Reports. The Validator tests publishers’ COUNTER API setup, as well as their reports.
Tools and Services
COUNTER Registry
The COUNTER Registry is where you can find information about usage data hosts – the technology providers which deliver COUNTER reports – and the platforms or publisher websites that they support. There’s a great deal more about it on the Registry page of this site.
Validator
The COUNTER Validator, the latest iteration of the Validation Tool, is designed to validate JSON and tabular reports for Release 5.1 and Release 5 of the COUNTER Code of Practice. The Validator detects missing metrics, as well as metric counts which cannot occur (e.g. fewer Total_Item_Requests than Unique_Item_Requests for an item). It is free to use, and we encourage all report providers to test their reports regularly.
There is comprehensive documentation about the Validator, as well as a change log for the testing module which underpins the tool. These are intended to inform report providers about changes in the validation which might explain differences in the validation result before and after a change. Our GitHub repository offers a way to submit change requests and raise issues.
The Validator remains under development. If you have any questions about the tool, please get in touch with tasha@countermetrics.org.
Community-developed tools
The COUNTER community has developed several tools and services which you may find useful, and we keep a list of them on the Tools and Services page. If you know of other free tools or services that we should add, please get in touch with tasha@countermetrics.org.
Archived Codes of Practice
If you are interested in older versions of the COUNTER Code of Practice, you can find them here. Please note that any reports that claim compliance with these older versions of the Code of Practice are not COUNTER-compliant.