Hi All,

COUNTER executive board members & technical advisory group members have been following this thread with interest. As suggested by Melissa Belvadi, this would appear not to be a common problem, but when discrepancies are noticed, it is important to inform the vendor and COUNTER of them. You can report issues to COUNTER at https://www.projectcounter.org/usage-report-issues/.  

COUNTER executive board & advisory members would like to understand how significant these differences are. The Code of Practice allows for a 3% over-reporting and 8% under-reporting ("reliability window"), and so differences within this range could be compliant. It was helpful to see the massive difference in year reporting given but since we do not know with which vendor/statistics platform, this is not something we can follow up without more details. Please share all documentation with us so we can help in resolving these problems. 

All the best,

Jill Emery
COUNTER Executive Board member

Jill Emery

Collection Development & Management Librarian

Portland State University

220H LIBW

P O Box 1151

Portland, OR 97207

(she, her, hers)

 

E:jemery@pdx.edu

T:503-725-4506

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1572-8059


On Thu, Feb 13, 2020 at 4:23 PM Michael A. Wood <mawood@med.cornell.edu> wrote:
Hi Rachel,

WOW! That is a HUGE difference.  Did you lose any resources on the platform between 2018 and 2020 (resources got transferred to another vendor/pub.)?  I wonder what is the cause of this?  Which count is accurate? We report to the various agencies annually so the first numbers we submit stands at this point...  Yes, I agree that this very unsettling because many of us use these numbers to make collection development decisions.

A vendor recently sent me denials for several journals to which we don't subscribe to so now I am wondering how accurate are those numbers since they cover several calendar years...   I haven't used COUNTER 5 so I can't comment on it yet.

-Michael
From: serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com> on behalf of Rachel Kirk <Rachel.Kirk@mtsu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 3:36 PM
To: Cardenas, Ilda <ildacardenas@Fullerton.edu>; serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [SERIALST] RE: Usage statistics discrepancies
 

Hi Ida,

 

I should be more specific. 

 

On February 1, 2018, I ran a report for JR1 (R4) for the time period of Jan 1,  2016 thru December 31, 2016 based on All Platforms.  The total of full text downloads was 1,011,117.

Today, February 13, 2020, I ran a report for JR1 (R4) for the time period of Jan 1, 2016 thru December 31, 2016 based on All Platforms. The total of full text downloads today is 588.845.

 

Rachel

From: Rachel Kirk
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 2:02 PM
To: 'Cardenas, Ilda' <ildacardenas@Fullerton.edu>; serialst@simplelists.com
Subject: RE: Usage statistics discrepancies

 

Hi Ida,

 

Yes.  I have downloaded two reports with the same date range and criteria and I received 2 different totals. 

 

Rachel

 

From: Cardenas, Ilda <ildacardenas@Fullerton.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 1:45 PM
To: Rachel Kirk <Rachel.Kirk@mtsu.edu>; serialst@simplelists.com
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Usage statistics discrepancies

 

Hi Rachel, 

 

Are you saying that you download the same report with different numbers?

 

-Ilda

From: Rachel Kirk <Rachel.Kirk@mtsu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 11:11 AM
To: serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com>; Cardenas, Ilda <ildacardenas@Fullerton.edu>
Subject: [External] RE: Usage statistics discrepancies

 

Hi Michael and Paulina,

 

I’ve noticed that the numbers changing on the Counter 4 Reports as well.  Last year, I noticed that December 2016 numbers had changed. I noticed it because I provide usage trends for the last five years.  It’s very unsettling when a prior year changes.

 

Rachel

 

From: serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com> On Behalf Of Michael A. Wood
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 4:58 PM
To: Cardenas, Ilda <ildacardenas@Fullerton.edu>; serialst@simplelists.com
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [SERIALST] Re: Usage statistics discrepancies

 

Hi Paulina,

 

I have noticed that sometimes the numbers on the COUNTER 4 reports will also change.  For example, you pull CY19 this month then in November you pull it again, you may find that the numbers at slightly off (up or down).

 

-Michael

 

Michael A. Wood

Head, Resource Management &

Qatar Liaison Librarian

 

Weill Cornell Medicine

S. J. Wood Library & C. V. Starr Biomedical Information  Center

1300 York Ave., C-115

New York, NY 10065

T 646-962.2471

 

mawood@med.cornell.edu

 

Care. Discover. Teach.

 

From: serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com> on behalf of Cardenas, Ilda <ildacardenas@Fullerton.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 4:30 PM
To: serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [SERIALST] RE: Usage statistics discrepancies

 

Hi Paulina,

 

I have seen this happen. You’re not alone. One reason that may explain this is that journals change platforms, so that count may be off.

 

Best regards,

 

Ilda Cardenas, MLIS

Electronic Resources Librarian

Pollak Library

California State University, Fullerton

(657) 278-2619

ildacardenas@fullerton.edu

 

 

From: serialst@simplelists.com <serialst@simplelists.com> On Behalf Of Harper, Paulina V
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 11:46 AM
To: serialst@simplelists.com
Subject: [External] [SERIALST] Usage statistics discrepancies

 

Hello,

 

Has anyone else seen instances of vendor usage statistics delivered via SUSHI being different than the usage pulled from the vendor sites directly? Please note, the usage pulled from the vendor sites may be months after the SUSHI data is delivered, but we also encountered this discrepancy once when we pulled the SUSHI and downloaded from the vendor directly in the same afternoon.

 

If yes, can you help me understand why this discrepancy exists? We are stumped.

 

Thanks,

Paulina V. Harper

Information Specialist

Upstream Library

 

RTD - Disruptive Technology & Commercial

ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions

S1.1B.417

22777 Springwoods Village Parkway

Spring, TX 77389

832 624 8332 Tel

Paulina.v.harper@exxonmobil.com

 

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