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The Usage Factor Project Update Richard Gedye, Research Director, Oxford Journals. UKSG Conference Torquay 31 March – 2 April 2009. Usage Factor = Total usage over period ‘x’ of articles published during period ‘y’ Total articles published during period ‘y’.
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The Usage Factor ProjectUpdateRichard Gedye, Research Director, Oxford Journals UKSG ConferenceTorquay 31 March – 2 April 2009
Usage Factor = Total usage over period ‘x’ of articles published during period ‘y’ Total articles published during period ‘y’
Preparing and harmonising data for analysis • Journal usage data from multiple publishers to be ingested and analysed by expert third party • 6 publishers • 1 aggregator • 1 hosting service • All interested in the insights to be gained from contributing data to the project
Key Data Issues • Consistency – numerator/denominator • Defining article usage year • Defining article publication date • Different usage patterns by subject
Data issues we have addressed 1. Consistency • Items in numerator must be in denominator • Clear definition of qualifying “items” • Machine recognisable • Unambiguous Solution? All items with a DOI? • This will include items such as editorial board listings, calendars of events, sponsoring society announcements, etc.
Other Possible Solutions • Rejected • Item must have references • Item must not have an empty author field • Item must be more than one page in length • Possible • Cross mapping items against one of the large and inclusive A and I services or citation databases • Examining article DTD tags • Intelligent textmining
Longer-term Solutions • Encourage publishers to:- • Lodge more detailed article metadata with CrossRef • Adopt the NLM DTD, use its article categories element, and make the results harvestable
Key Data Issues • Consistency – numerator/denominator • Defining article usage year • Defining article publication date • Different usage patterns by subject
Data issues we have addressed 2. Article usage year • Inter-journal comparisons can be distorted by different patterns of article publication during the calendar year • Usage in the first calendar “year” could be as little as one month and as much as 12 months Solution • provide data about the first 12, 24, 36 months of usage of articles published in each chosen calendar year rather than calendar year usage
Key Data Issues • Consistency – numerator/denominator • Defining article usage year • Defining article publication date • Different usage patterns by subject
Data issues we have addressed 3. Article publication date • Early online version • Final online version • Printed issue publication date • Some early or even “final” versions of articles are published online many months (sometimes years) before the official publication date of the journal issue of which they are nominally a part. Solution • Supply usage data at the article version level, showing usage patterns of different versions separately
Key Data Issues • Consistency – numerator/denominator • Defining article usage year • Defining article publication date • Different usage patterns by subject
Data issues we have addressed 4. Potential differences by subject • Might usage patterns vary between subject areas? • To find out, we needed to identify a third party schema which had classified by subject all journals participating in our project Solution • Use the Dewey Decimal Codes (DDC) which the British Library have assigned to all the journals for which they hold records (>20,000)
With key data issues addressed, we have developed a specification for the report via which participating publishers will transfer their usage data to the appointed third party for analysis
Data Analysis and Modelling • Using the data provided, the appointed contractor will produce a report which will:- • Outline the various metrics assessed • Recommend which of them prove consistent and robust enough to be adopted for scaled up onward monitoring • Suggest any ways in which data providers might amend the way they capture, structure, label, and maintain their data which would make the measurement of Usage Factors:- • Easier • More reliable • Propose ways to audit Usage Factors for accuracy
Usage Factor Project • More information at:- • http://www.uksg.org/usagefactors • Or contact:- Richard Gedye richard.gedye@oxfordjournals.org