White Paper on Electronic Journal Usage Statistics

This paper provides a snapshot of developments in the electronic journal industry. The first section identifies issues affecting librarians and publishers, including: (1) issues of common concern to both publishers and librarians, e.g., lack of comparable data, lack of context, incomplete usage data, marketing, content provided, interface affecting usage, economic model, and user privacy; (2) library issues, e.g., budget justification and impact on selection; and (3) a publisher issue, internal applications. Quantitative measures are discussed in the second section, including what data elements should be collected and data reliability. The third section suggests a meeting at which publishers who have already implemented statistical functionality can share what they have learned, including producing useful data and interpreting the data. Appendices include summaries of interviews with librarians and publishers, the ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia) “Guidelines for Statistical Measures of Usage of Web-Based Indexed, Abstracted, and Full Text Resources,” and descriptions of related industry initiatives