COUNTER Release 2 Compliance Realized by Elsevier

["Menefee, Daviess (ELS)" <D.Menefee@elsevier.com>]

The following may be of interest to readers of this list. 
Please excuse any duplication.

Regards,
Daviess Menefee
Library Relations
Elsevier

COUNTER Release 2 Compliance Realized by Elsevier:

ScienceDirect(r) and Scopus(r) Usage Reports Now Release 2 Compliant

Amsterdam, March 21, 2006 - Elsevier, a leading publisher of 
science, technical and medical information products and services, 
is pleased to announce that all ScienceDirect(r) and Scopus(r) 
Usage Reports are now fully compliant with Release 2 of the 
international COUNTER Code of Practice for Journals and 
Databases. Elsevier initially became COUNTER compliant in 
November 2003, and is now one of the first publishers to achieve 
Release 2 compliance. The COUNTER Code of Practice is supported 
by a global organization of librarians, publishers and their 
professional organizations, and promotes credible, consistent, 
and compatible measurement of usage data from online information 
resources around the world.

COUNTER-compliant usage reports are available for librarian 
administrators at all subscribing institutions and consortia, as 
well as for those customers requesting departmental reports. In 
order to allow librarians to fully benefit from the upgraded 
COUNTER Code of Practice, Elsevier has incorporated new fields 
and features directly into ScienceDirect(r) and Scopus(r) Usage 
Reports. New usage fields (updated retrospectively for 2005 and 
2006) include: year-to-date totals for PDF and HTML formats of 
all Full Text Articles per Journal; the name of the e-journal 
platform, the publisher of each full text article; as well as a 
new export option which generates a COUNTER Release 2 compliant 
report in comma-separated format.

In addition to the COUNTER compliant reports, Elsevier provides 
librarians with a series of innovative and informative usage 
overviews. For ScienceDirect these include usage by entitlement 
and article format; full text usage of book series, handbooks and 
major reference works; an overview of external sites referring 
users to full text articles on ScienceDirect; and finally, 
reports on the active user base and user sessions. Scopus offers 
a general overview of users, searches and abstracts viewed with 
detailed reports on the types of search used, and finally, 
reports on inward, outward and reference link usage.

Peter Shepherd, COUNTER Project Director, said: "We are delighted 
that Elsevier is now providing usage reports that comply with 
Release 2 of the COUNTER Code of Practice, for both ScienceDirect 
and Scopus. Elsevier has been a founding member of COUNTER since 
the initiative was launched in 2002.  The number of full text 
journals with Release 2- compliant usage reports will now 
increase by some 1,800 titles. Indeed, the fact that Scopus usage 
reports have also been updated is a major boost to COUNTER's 
goals, not to mention a further indication of Elsevier's 
commitment to improving industry standards for online usage data. 
We have no doubt that this is an important service for librarians 
in their work."

Frank Vrancken Peeters, Managing Director, Academic & Government, 
Science & Technology, Elsevier said: "COUNTER participation-and 
our compliance with the Release 2 Code of Practice-has helped us 
to better understand and meet librarian information needs. 
COUNTER not only provides librarians with usage data in a way 
that is most meaningful to them, but it gives us the information 
we need to continuously improve our products. This comes down to 
shared knowledge and better customer service."

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