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Platforms in COUNTER reports

Modified on: Wed, 6 Nov, 2024 at 6:58 AM

COUNTER reports for SpringerLink, nature.com, SpringerMaterial, AdisInsight, etc can all be downloaded from the Usage page on the Librarian Portal.

The SpringerLink Platform Report contains data for the Metric_Type searches_platform from July 2020 onwards.

SpringerLink usage data for January 2019 to May 2019 does not report all investigation activities. For this period only requests and denials (Metric_Type No_License) are included in the investigation counts.

SpringerLink usage from January 2016 to December 2018 only reports Total_Item_Requests, SN:total_Chapter_Requests, and No_License. These counts were migrated from COUNTER release 4 data.

SpringerLink usage data for January 2016 to December 2018 reports higher than actual usage. An issue related to “double-click filtering” caused the disparity. Double-click filtering is the process that ensures that we only count each person’s activity once within a defined time period. Double-click filtering for HTML views was done for a 10 second period, as defined in the initial release 4 Code of Practice (“CoP”). In 2013 the CoP was updated to increase the length to 30 seconds, but we were only made aware of this change in late 2018. This caused counts to be higher than they should have been.

SpringerLink usage data up until December 2018 reports higher than actual usage for conference proceedings with between 100 and 200 chapters. These large proceedings were reported as 100 chapters but should have been reported as 200 chapters in the SN:Total_Chapter_Requests count.

Reported usage data for journals ‘Cell Stress and Chaperones’, ‘In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal’ and ‘Wetlands’ is lower than actual numbers. The issue is caused by the fact that DOIs of certain articles, published between 1996 and 2004, contain symbols that currently cannot be properly consumed by our system.


nature.com details

nature.com usage data does not report all investigation activities. Only requests and denials (Metric_Type No_License) are included in the investigation counts. The nature.com Platform Report contains data for the Metric_Type searches_platform from July 2020 onwards.


nature.com usage from January 2016 to December 2018 only reports Total_Item_Requests and No_License. These counts were migrated from COUNTER release 4 data.

nature.com usage data for September 2018 to May 2019 reports lower or higher than actual usage. Two issues related to “double-click filtering” caused disparity, and one migration issue. Double-click filtering is the process that ensures that we only count each person’s activity once within a defined time period.

  1. Double-click filtering for HTML views was done for a 10 second period, as defined in the initial release 4 Code of Practice (“CoP”). In 2013 the CoP was updated to increase the length to 30 seconds, but we were only made aware of this change in 2019.
  2. Double-click filtering was done on the journal level but should have been done on the article level. This caused counts to be lower than they should have been. The problem was fixed in May 2019.
  3. As part of the migration from Nature Publishing Group (“NPG”) to Springer Nature we used a list of IP addresses to aggregate usage from former NPG accounts. However, over time the IP address list got outdated. Usage and denials were therefore partially mis-attributed up until May 2019.

Counts for searches_platform on nature.com during the reporting period July–December 2021 are shown as lower than they should be, with some months displayed as having had 0 searches. The issue was resolved in December 2021.

Scientific American details

At the moment Scientific American is not reporting COUNTER usage. The most recent full month report is for March 2023. We do not know when usage reporting will be active for Scientific American again.

Scientific American usage data is available as a standalone platform from March 2019. Previous to March 2019 the usage is reported as a title on the nature.com platform.

Scientific American usage data for March 2019 to December 2019 reports lower or higher than actual usage. Two issues related to “double-click filtering” caused disparity, and one migration issue. Double-click filtering is the process that ensures that we only count each person’s activity once within a defined time period.

  1. Double-click filtering for HTML views was done for a 10 second period, as defined in the initial release 4 Code of Practice (“CoP”). In 2013 the CoP was updated to increase the length to 30 seconds, but we were only made aware of this change in 2019. This caused counts to be higher than they should have been. The problem was fixed in July 2019.
  2. Double-click filtering was done on the journal level but should have been done on the article level. This caused counts to be lower than they should have been. The problem was fixed in August 2019.
  3. As part of the migration from Nature Publishing Group (“NPG”) to Springer Nature we used a list of IP-addresses to aggregate usage from former NPG accounts. However, over time the IP address list got outdated. Usage and denials were therefore partially mis-attributed up until December 2019.

BMC and SpringerOpen details 

SpringerOpen usage is reported on the BMC platform.

BMC usage from January 2016 to December 2018 only reports Total_Item_Requests and No_License. These counts were migrated from COUNTER release 4 data.


ResearchGate details

Via a partnership between Springer Nature and ResearchGate content from all journals that are fully owned by us (i.e. not including society journals) are accessible on ResearchGate.

 

Since January 2021 usage data for your patrons’ activities with Springer Nature content on ResearchGate can be downloaded from us. The platform name is SN:ResearchGate


SpringerProtocols details

SpringerProtocols usage is included in the COUNTER release 5 Book Requests report TR_B1. You will need to filter for ISBNs of SpringerProtocols titles. A complete list of SpringerProtocols titles is available in a file called “Complete Protocols” on the Metadata Downloader KBART page.

Usage reporting for SpringerLink only includes usage on that platform. If you need reports for SpringerProtocols.com usage up until that platform’s deactivation (25th July 2018), please contact us at experiments@springernature.com.


SpringerReference details

SpringerReference usage is included in the COUNTER release 5 Book Requests report TR_B1. You will need to filter for ISBNs of SpringerReference titles. A complete list of SpringerReference titles is available in a file called “Complete Reference Works” on the Metadata Downloader KBART page.


Meta-Press details

Historical usage reports from the Meta-Press platform are available via online service.


AdisInsight details

AdisInsight usage data for the database platform is available from 2021 onwards only. AdisInsight is incorrectly counting most searches also as denials since January 2021. As a result, the number of denials is often higher than the number of investigations. The respective team is working on solving this problem as soon as possible.


SpringerMaterials details

SpringerMaterials usage data for the database platform is available from 2021 onwards only.

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