These statistics enable institutions to share usage information about their repository with individual researchers, colleagues, and other stakeholders. Usage data can be used to:
- identify high use items for promotion, highlighting to researchers or reporting
- demonstrate the value of the IR and promote the use of the repository within the institution
- investigate and identify any spikes in usage
- evaluate the impact of events or activities (e.g. OA week) or any dissemination activity
- understand how repository content is being used to support institutional planning
IRUS offers flexible reporting tools that you can use to answer a range of questions. Platform level reports give a summary of usage for a repository or set of repositories. Item level reports provide detailed statistics at the item level (e.g. article, thesis etc.)
Common reporting questions
Here are some examples of common requirements and how to get this data from IRUS.
What is the total usage of all items in our repository last month?
- Under Report, choose Custom Platform Master Report
- Select your institution/repository, all Item_Types, set date range, and choose two request Metric_Types (i.e. Total_Item_Requests and Unique_Item_Requests)
- The report will give the totals for two Metric_Types: Total_Item_Requests (comparable with previous IRUS counts) and Unique_Item_Requests (de-duplicated where multiple files for the same item are downloaded)
What was the total of downloads across all our repositories?
- Under Report, choose Custom Platform Master Report
- Search for your institution, select from list, and this will select all your repositories
- Select all Item_Types, set date range, and choose a request Metric_Type (i.e. Total_Item_Requests or Unique_Item_Requests)
What was the most requested or investigated item/article/thesis etc. in your repository in a given month?
For a visualisation:
- Under Visualise, select Top Items
- Select your institution/repository, the Item_Type of interest, the month, and your preferred Metric_Type
For a tabular report:
- Under Report, select Custom Item Master Report
- Select your institution/repository, the month, the Item_Type of interest, and your preferred Metric_Type
- Sort by clicking on column heading (only available when a single Metric_Type is selected)
What type of item is most requested or investigated?
- Under Report, choose Custom Platform Master Report
- Select your institution/repository, the month, all Item_Types, and your preferred Metric_Type
- For "Optional columns to include:" tick "Item_Type"
- Sort by clicking on column heading (only available when a single Metric_Type is selected)
What is the usage of all items by a particular author?
- Under Report, choose IRUS statistics by ORCID
- Enter an ORCID
What were the trends or patterns of use over the last year/month?
All reports will provide monthly granularity, and this will allow you to analyse trends over time. The available date range will depend on when your institution joined IRUS. Trend visualisations will be added in future.
COUNTER reports are produced on a monthly basis. This allows for better analysis and exclusion of robot activity and keeps datasets to a manageable size. However, IRUS provides provisional daily statistics for a limited rolling period and currently only available via the API.
What were the downloads/Total_Item_Requests usage over all the months we have had data in IRUS?
- Under Report, choose Combined R4/R5 Platform Report
- Select up to 5, or all, institutions and required associated repositories, and the required date range
Where does the usage originate (which country)?
The Custom Platform Master Report and Custom Item Master Report both include options to include a breakdown of usage by country (based on IP). Leave the Filter: Country set to 'All' and then tick Country as an 'Optional columns to include'.
To find out what is being used by a specific country, you can limit to a country (based on IP) using the Filter: Country.
The Individual Item Report also provides a 'Show breakdown by Country' option.
How well has this particular item been used?
- Under Report, choose Individual Item Report and enter a DOI or OAI ID
- Or click on an 'Item title' of a result from the Custom Item Master Report
More information
For more information about the various Metric_Types available and what they mean, see Understanding and interpreting IRUS COUNTER R5 data.
If you would like to see how your usage compares with others, take a look at Comparing and benchmarking.