COUNTER ACADEMY
From novice to expert
This online course takes a deep dive into usage metrics and how to use COUNTER. It’s designed for both librarians and publishers so our whole community can benefit from the new programme. It suits participants with a range of levels of familiarity with COUNTER. All participants that provided feedback on the first course reported an increased confidence with using COUNTER.
Over 16 weeks we cover eight topics. Each module will include recorded videos, a live Q&A session, further reading and a short quiz or exercise. Participants who complete all the quizzes and exercises will receive a certificate of completion at the end of their Academy experience.
The first COUNTER Academy began in July 2025. In 2026 we have two courses, starting 2 February and 29 June.
“The Academy was exceptionally well designed and highly relevant for today’s library professionals, especially tasked with e-resources management, impact assessments and demonstrating usage/metrics value to key stakeholders. It provided both the theoretical grounding and the practical tools necessary to interpret and use COUNTER metrics effectively.” – Participant, COUNTER Academy, July 2025
“I feel much more confident with all aspects of COUNTER now having had the opportunity to work through and understand not only what the data really means but also what’s happening when we generate those reports.” – Participant, COUNTER Academy, July 2025
What We Cover
Over the course of 16 weeks (two weeks per module), participants will explore:
- Introduction to usage metrics
- Turning clicks into metrics
- Attributes, elements and other techy stuff
- Using COUNTER metrics to answer questions
- Harvesting reports
- Combining COUNTER with other data
- Beyond institutions
- Behind the scenes
How To Participate
Participation in the COUNTER Academy is a member benefit. People affiliated with library, consortium, publisher and technology provider members can take part. Unfortunately we can’t offer spaces to affiliate members, non-members, or institutions which are part of a member consortium.
To ensure we can give everyone the attention and support they need, we restrict numbers to a maximum of 25 participants per cohort.
The Academy offers in-depth training that can’t be found anywhere else. To make it sustainable for COUNTER we have to charge a small fee per participant to cover the costs of developing and running the course. We’ve kept that fee as low as possible (just £250 in 2026). Thanks to our generous sponsors, we have been able to offer free spaces to library participants so far.
Check to see if you are part of a member organisation, and register your interest in future courses, using the buttons below.
Sponsorship
We are always looking for ways to support librarians, and one of the ways we do it is by seeking sponsorship for participation in the Academy.
Sponsorship starts at £1000, which covers four library places. Sponsors who contribute £1500 or more are offered a bonus spot for a member of their staff to join the Academy. For more information about sponsorship, please contact sian@countermetrics.org.
Academy Sponsors
Cambridge University Press sponsored multimedia editing and the original build of COUNTER Academy. APS, Clarivate, Scholarly IQ and Thieme have all sponsored library spaces during 2025 and 2026.
APS, Clarivate, Scholarly IQ and Thieme have all sponsored library spaces during 2025 and 2026.
