Policy Consultation: Syndicated Usage

We know that content syndication is becoming ever-more popular, and that means COUNTER needs to find a way to allow people to share COUNTER-compliant usage reports from the syndicated platform to the original publisher. That will mean publishers have consistent, comparable usage metrics from all the syndicated usage platforms they work with, and can tell which ones are delivering return on the time and effort invested in syndication. Equally, we might be able to facilitate aggregate institutional reporting, so librarians only have to check one report for all of the content from a publisher.

The COUNTER Executive Committee discussed the situation and created a draft policy for consultation.

Draft policy

Who can share syndicated usage

• This policy applies to content that is syndicated and available on multiple platforms.
• Both the syndication platform and the original publisher MUST be independently audited as COUNTER-compliant.
• We recommend that usage metrics be shared from the syndication platform back to the original publisher.

Global reporting

• The syndication platform SHOULD send global reports to the original publisher (i.e. all usage, whether attributable to an institution or not).
• The syndication platform may deliver global reports directly to report consumers when these are requested.
• The original publisher may deliver aggregated global usage reports (i.e. their own global reports plus the global usage from syndication platforms) but MUST clearly mark the platforms on which usage occurred in the Platform field using the namespace SYNDICATED:{platform name}, so that syndicated usage can be identified and excluded when creating a Standard View from a COUNTER Report.

Institutional reporting

• Institutional reports MUST only be shared where the syndication platform and the original publisher can guarantee that the authentication identifiers match exactly. This means OpenAthens or Shibboleth sign-ins that can be very specifically tied to one institution are acceptable, as are IP ranges where the syndication platform and original publisher share an IP database.
• Institutional reports MUST NOT be shared based on ‘best-guess’ institutional matching where the syndication platform and original publisher have different IP databases.

What syndication platforms can do with institutional reports

• The syndication platform may deliver institutional reports directly to report consumers when these are requested, provided there is a clear notification on their report interface that this usage information is also available from the original publisher.
• The syndicated platform SHOULD share information with the ​original publisher about whether COUNTER reports are being called for the syndicated content.

What original publishers can do with institutional reports

• The original publisher MUST clearly mark the platforms on which usage occurred in the Platform field using the namespace SYNDICATED:{platform name}, so that syndicated usage can be identified and excluded when creating a Standard View from a COUNTER Report.
• The original publisher SHOULD include syndicated usage in their global and institutional reports only where it is explicitly requested through their reporting interface. The next breaking release of the Code of Practice will include a change to the COUNTER API (formerly sushi) to create a new Report_Attribute which will permit similar exclusion there.

Have your say

Let us know what you think of this policy by contacting tasha@countermetrics.org by Friday 28 June 2024.