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For publisher usage statistics please visit our Publisher Support site for information about generating Usage for Journal Publishers and Books at JSTOR Publisher Reports.
About COUNTER Release 5.1 on JSTOR
JSTOR offers COUNTER Release 5.1 reports compliant with the COUNTER Code of Practice and verified by an independent audit. COUNTER 5.1 reports are available for usage beginning March 2025.
As of March 1, 2025, COUNTER 5.1 reporting is available through JSTOR Admin and through JSTOR's SUSHI harvesting service. We will continue to produce COUNTER 5 data through March 31, 2025.
The following is a checklist that you or your institution's JSTOR administrator can use to transition your reporting from Release 5 to Release 5.1.
Scheduled reports delivery
- Create new scheduled reports for COUNTER 5.1
- Delete existing scheduled reports for COUNTER 5, if desired
SUSHI harvesting
- Update your SUSHI request URL to the new COUNTER 5.1 endpoint
What is COUNTER?
Project COUNTER is a standardizing body that issues a Code of Practice for use by publishers and content providers to count usage so that libraries can evaluate use in consistent ways across electronic resource platforms. The JSTOR platform offers COUNTER Release 5.1-compliant reports, verified via a COUNTER audit.
Want to learn more? The COUNTER organization has created the Friendly Guide: Introducing COUNTER Metrics, and it contains detailed information about report types, metrics, definitions, and other common questions.
Creating reports
To request a one-time report:
- Log into JSTOR Admin with a personal account that has administrative permissions.
- Not an admin yet? See Accessing JSTOR Admin to get started.
- Open the Reports drop-down menu in the JSTOR Admin sidebar and select COUNTER 5.1.
- Click the Create Report button.
- Under Type, select "One-time".
- Configure your report options including:
- Report
- Report format
- Date range
- Report name
- Email address to notify when the report is ready
- Once you've made your selections, click the Continue button.
- Confirm your report configuration and submit your request by clicking the Submit button or click the Back button to make additional changes.
If there are no errors, you'll receive a success message noting that you'll be emailed when the report is available for download in the Reports area of JSTOR Admin.
Scheduling reports
To schedule reports for automatic delivery:
- Log into JSTOR Admin with a personal account that has administrative permissions.
- Not an admin yet? See Accessing JSTOR Admin to get started.
- Open the Reports drop-down menu in the JSTOR Admin sidebar and select COUNTER 5.1.
- Click the Create Report button.
- Under Type, select "Scheduled".
- Configure your report options including:
- Report
- Report format
- Report name
- Email address to notify when the report is ready
- Once you've made your selections, click the Continue button.
- Confirm your report configuration and submit your request by clicking the Submit button or click the Back button to make additional changes.
Scheduled reports will be delivered on the first or second day following the completed month of reporting. For example, your April report will be delivered at the beginning of May. You'll find your scheduled reports on the Scheduled Reports tab.
Deleting scheduled reports
To delete an existing scheduled report:
- Log into JSTOR Admin with a personal account that has administrative permissions.
- Not an admin yet? See Accessing JSTOR Admin to get started.
- Open the Reports drop-down menu in the sidebar and select COUNTER 5 or 5.1, depending on which report(s) you wish to delete.
- Select the Scheduled Reports tab.
- Click the Delete button next to the report you wish to delete.
Report types available
For more information about these reports and what they measure, see COUNTER’s Friendly Guide: Introducing COUNTER Metrics. Below are the reports available with their corresponding definitions as provided by the COUNTER Code of Practice.
Master reports
| Report ID | Report Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| DR | Database Master Report | A customizable report that offers usage on all metrics and content types for JSTOR, including full-text usage, investigations, searches, and turnaways, and includes federated searches. |
| IR | Item Master Report |
A customizable report that offers usage of multimedia on the selected platform. Usage is shown at the individual item level. This report includes usage of Artstor on JSTOR licensed and open collections and Shared Collections contributed content. |
| PR | Platform Master Report | A customizable report that offers usage on all metrics and content types for the selected platform, including full-text usage, investigations, platform searches, excluding federated searches. |
| TR | Title Master Report | A customizable report that offers detailed usage at the title level for books, journals, research reports, and primary sources on JSTOR. |
Standard views
| Report ID | Report Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| DR_D1 | Database Report 1 | Reports on key Searches, Investigations, and Requests metrics on JSTOR. |
| DR_D2 | Database Report 2 | Reports on users that were denied access because their institution did not have a license for that content item on JSTOR. |
| IR_M1 | Multimedia Item Requests | Reports on multimedia requests on the selected platform at the item level. |
| PR_P1 | Platform Report 1 | Reports on all usage on the selected platform summarized by Metric_Type. |
| TR_B1 | Book Requests, Excluding OA_Gold* | Reports on full-text activity for JSTOR ebooks, excluding Gold Open Access content, as Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Title_Requests. Item_Requests are captured at the chapter level on JSTOR. |
| TR_B2 | Book Access Denied | Reports on Access Denied activity for JSTOR ebooks where users were denied access because their institution did not have a license. |
| TR_B3 | Book Usage by Access Type | Reports on JSTOR ebook usage showing all applicable Metric_Types broken down by Access_Type. |
| TR_J1 | Journal Requests, Excluding OA_Gold* | Shows usage of JSTOR journal content, excluding Gold Open Access content, as Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests. |
| TR_J2 | Journal Access Denied | Reports on Access Denied activity for JSTOR journal content where users were denied access because their institution did not have a license for the title. |
| TR_J3 | Journal Usage by Access Type | Reports on usage of JSTOR journal content for all Metric_Types broken down by Access_Type. |
| TR_4 | Journal Requests by YOP, Excluding OA_Gold* | Breaks down the usage of journal content, excluding Gold Open Access content, by year of publication (YOP), providing counts for Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests. Provides the details necessary to analyze usage of content in backfiles or current content subscriptions on JSTOR. |
*These reports will still include JSTOR Open Access usage. OA_Gold is a separate metric type that is excluded from these reports.
Additional reports
- Consortium Report (CR_C1): Custom COUNTER report that facilitates viewing of metrics for all consortia members in a single report. The metrics include full-access usage, searches, and turnaways.
Key terms and metrics
Certain metrics will measure specific kinds of user behavior. For instance, downloading a PDF and viewing a full text article (without downloading) will both be recorded as the metric: “Item_Requests”.
Most key terms and definitions are available in the Friendly Guide: Introducing COUNTER Metrics. See the chart below for a description of how JSTOR has implemented support for COUNTER metrics.
User actions mapped to COUNTER metrics
| JSTOR user action | Common page(s) | R5 metric |
|---|---|---|
| Download a PDF | Search results, full-text article, chapter, report page | Item_Requests |
| View an image, download an image, compare images | Image page | Item_Requests |
| View full-text article, chapter, report | Article page, chapter page, report page | Item_Requests |
| Download book EPUB | Book TOC (when available) | Item_Requests (Book level) |
| View article, report page | Article page, abstract view of article page, article preview, report page | Item_Investigations |
| View article, report page (unauthenticated and/or no access) | Abstract view of article page, report page | No_License |
| View image | Image view | Item_Investigations |
| View image (unauthenticated and/or no access) | Image preview | No_License |
| View book chapter | Book chapter | Item_Investigations |
| View book chapter (unauthenticated and/or no access) | Abstract view of book chapter | No_License |
| View book TOC | Book TOC | Item_Investigations |
| View book TOC (unauthenticated and/or no access) | Abstract view of book TOC | No_License |
| Basic Search | Home page, Topic page, Theme page, Global nav bar | Searches_Regular, Searches_Platform |
| Advanced Search | Advanced Search | Searches_Regular, Searches_Platform |
| Image Search | Image search, Workspace compare image search | Searches_Regular, Searches_Platform |
| Text Analyzer Search | Text Analyzer home Note: The Text Analyzer tool was retired on August 30, 2024. |
Searches_Regular, Searches_Platform |
| Federated search request (metasearch) | JSTOR XML Gateway | Searches_Federated |
SUSHI reporting
SUSHI harvesting is available for JSTOR COUNTER reports. To learn more, please visit Usage Reports: SUSHI Report Harvesting for information on harvesting JSTOR reports with COUNTER’s SUSHI protocol.
Custom book reports
JSTOR offers a usage report that reflects acquisitions and book usage that aligns with your acquisition model(s). To learn more about the ebook usage report, please see Books at JSTOR Reports.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far back does COUNTER 5.1 data go?
COUNTER 5.1 data is provided for 2023 to present.
Can I still access COUNTER 5 reports?
Yes, we will provide access to COUNTER 5 reports through March 2027 through the COUNTER 5 page in JSTOR Admin and JSTOR’s COUNTER 5 SUSHI endpoint. See Usage Reports: SUSHI Report Harvesting for details.
Can I still access COUNTER 4 reports?
No, COUNTER 4 reports are no longer available through the JSTOR reporting service. The service has been retired as of February, 2022.
What is the difference between a scheduled report and a requested report?
There are two ways to request COUNTER data in our new reporting system:
- "Request" report: Allows you to request data for a custom date range. The report will be delivered to your email address and will be downloadable within JSTOR Admin as soon as it’s available.
- "Scheduled" reports: Scheduling reports allows you to set up automatic reports to be emailed to you for a selected report at the beginning of every month. Scheduled reports are delivered on the 1st or 2nd of each month, and will only contain data for the previous month. When you set up a new scheduled report, the first report you receive will be sent on the 1st or 2nd day of the next month. Scheduled reports don't expire but can be deleted.
Does JSTOR offer consolidated usage reports for consortia?
Yes! In response to concerns over the removal of consortia reports in COUNTER Release 5, JSTOR now offers a consolidated usage report for consortia and group accounts called the CR_C1 Report. This report facilitates viewing of Release 5 metrics for members in a single report. The metrics included in the report reflect full-access usage, searches, and turnaways.
What should I do if there’s a problem with my COUNTER report?
If you suspect a problem with your COUNTER report, please contact JSTOR Support for assistance.
Why is my file in .TSV file format (and not .XLSX)?
Due to file size limits and efficient data delivery, usage report files default to .XSLX file format unless they contain 200k or greater rows of data. When this data capacity is reached, report files automatically convert to a .TSV file format for smoother delivery.