COUNTER has reduced the number of metrics from Release 4 for consistency and clarity across reports. Investigations and Requests are two metric types that record usage under R5, with Requests as a subset of Investigations. An Investigation is when a user performs any action in relation to a content item, while a request is the actual viewing or download of the full content item.
The following chart shows the R4 Report and R5 equivalent metrics. R5 Standard views are analogous to the R4 reports for comparison year on year.
R4 Report | R4 metric | R5 equivalent |
BR1 | Full-text requests (at the book level) | Unique_Title_Requests AND Data_Type=Book AND Section_Type=Book |
BR2 | Full-text requests (at the chapter/section level) | Total_Item_Requests AND Data_Type=Book AND Section_Type=Chapter|Section |
BR3 | Access denied – concurrent/simultaneous user limit exceeded | Limit_Exceeded AND Data_Type=Book |
Access denied – content item not licensed | No_License AND Data_Type=Book | |
DB1 | Regular searches | Searches_Regular |
Searches – federated and automated | SUM (Searches_Automated, Searches_Federated) | |
Result clicks | Total_Item_Investigations attributed to the database | |
Record views | Total_Item_Investigations attributed to the database. (Note that resulting result click and record view counts will be the same. Librarians should use one or the other and not add them up.) | |
DB2 | Access denied – concurrent/simultaneous user limit exceeded | Limit_Exceeded AND Data_Type=Database |
Access denied – content item not license | No_License AND Data_Type=Database | |
JR1 | Full-text requests | Total_Item_Requests AND Data_Type=Journal |
HTML requests | Leave blank unless format of HTML and PDF are also logged in which case: Total_Item_Requests AND Data_Type=Journal AND Format=HTML | |
PDF requests | Leave blank unless format of HTML and PDF are also logged in which case: Total_Item_Requests AND Data_Type=Journal AND Format=PDF | |
JR2 | Access denied – concurrent/simultaneous user limit exceeded | Limit_Exceeded AND Data_Type=Journal |
Access denied—content item not licensed | No_License AND Data_Type=Journal | |
JR5 | Full-text requests (by year of publications) | Total_Item_Requests AND Data_Type=Journal, pivot on YOP |
PR1 | Regular searches | Searches_Platform |
Searches – federated and automated | Leave blank (Searches performed on the platform via federated and automated searching are included in Searches_Platform). | |
Result clicks | SUM (Total_Item_Investigations attributed to the databases) | |
Record views | SUM (Total_Item_Investigations attributed to the databases). |
Please note that the distinction between HTML views and PDF downloads has become defunct under Release 5.