Statistics on the Usage of REpositories (SURE)
Scholarly Communication
Status: Completed
One of the advantages of making a publication available on the Internet (with Open Access) is that you can keep track of how often the publication has been viewed and downloaded. But there are many ways of keeping track of statistics. And how do you know whether the publication has been viewed by an actual human being and not just by a robot?
In SURFshare’s “SURE” project (Statistics on the Usage of REpositories), arrangements have been agreed on regarding statistics for consultation and downloading of publications in repositories. A central database has also been developed that collects, analyses, and presents log data. This makes it possible for the NARCIS research portal to present user statistics for each publication so that the data for the various different repositories can be compared.
Results
Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam, VU University Amsterdam, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) have agreed on arrangements and developed a tool in the context of SURFshare’s SURE project (Statistics on the Usage of REpositories).
1. Generic software applicable to all institutional repositories. Also guidelines for how to transfer the log data from the repository to the central database.
2. Software for a central database (log aggregator) that collects the log data for the various different repositories.
3. A central database that collects, analyses, and normalises all the log files and presents them per publication or document.
4. A services catalogue with an overview of the services that can be offered on the basis of the statistics. NARCIS uses such a service to display the statistics per publication.
5. An international robot filter list; this makes it possible to distinguish between human users and machines. Robots are filtered out of the statistics so that the data is thus normalised and is comparable.
The project results can also be found on the SURFfoundation wiki.
Who is it for?
The results of the SURE project will allow repository managers and administrators to offer statistical services for researchers and other end users.
An example of such a statistical service is provided by the results of the Leiden Open Access Grassroots Project which preceded the SURE project. The Leiden project involved experimenting with sending e mails to scientists giving usage statistics. This brought them up to date about their own publications in the repository and how often they had been consulted or downloaded. This service is greatly appreciated. SURE means that the statistical data for Leiden University are comparable with those for Maastricht University, for example.
The future
The next step is for all the Dutch universities to implement the agreed arrangements and utilise the tool. If all the universities implement SURE, NARCIS will be able to provide statistics covering all publications. This will allow every university researcher in the Netherlands to see how often his/her publication has been viewed or downloaded.
International
The SURE project partners are contributing their experience to the comparable project in the context of Knowledge Exchange. The European OpenAire project also make use of the results of the SURE project.