Survey reveals high satisfaction with COUNTER

Our latest satisfaction survey has revealed that 89% of respondents are either happy or very happy with what COUNTER is doing.

“Thank you for all your work! COUNTER is vital to managing e-resources. It is extremely helpful to have a single standard by which we can compare our databases.”

“I just want to say how much I appreciate all the work Tasha does in engaging the community, advocating for meaningful changes, and keeping everyone up to date on what’s going on with COUNTER.”

Using COUNTER

In the survey we asked people about how they use COUNTER and their thoughts on the Code and tools. Here is what we found:

• Use of COUNTER – Respondents use COUNTER in a wide range of ways. The most common are Cost per use calculations (81%) and Purchasing and cancellation decisions (77%). Around half use it for reporting, to consortia and national bodies (54%) and to management (49%).
• The Code – 73% of respondents so far say that Release 5.1 is good or great at meeting their reporting needs, with a further 24% neutral on this question.
• Tools – We asked about what COUNTER tools people used. Of the people who replied, 67% have used the Registry, 57% have used the Harvester Tool, and 34% have used the Validator Tool.

Education and support

Respondents also responded positively to the questions about the education materials and communications from COUNTER.

• Education – Overall, 86% rate COUNTER’s education materials as good or great. Our Friendly guides are particularly popular and have been used by 91% of respondents. Webinars have been used by 58% of people and 41% have used blog posts and FAQs on the website. Video classes, printable introductions, blog posts, and the conference have each been used by around a third of respondents. There is a considerable interest in the COUNTER Academy – 7% have already registered and 37% said they would like to register, with a further 39% saying maybe.
• Communications – 87% rate our communications as good or great. Of those who have contacted COUNTER with a question, 75% rated the response time as good or great. 

What next?

In addition to the top-level numbers, respondents provided a wealth of comments and suggestions. Over the coming weeks we will be analysing these comments as we plan work for 2026 and beyond. Many of the comments relate to things already in the pipeline; look out for our upcoming consultations on AI and lowering the barriers to entry for small organisations that are not currently COUNTER compliant. Other comments will feed into development of education materials and future discussions.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to our survey and who engages with COUNTER.

About the survey

The survey ran for two months in September and October. It attracted responses from 198 people (more than any previous COUNTER survey) from 22 countries. The majority of responses came from librarians or consortia (81%), with a further 14% of responses from publishers or aggregators. Responses represented COUNTER members (40%), non members (38%) and 22% who do not know if their organisation is a COUNTER member.