COUNTER Code of Practice Release 5: Consistency, Clarity, Simplification, and Continuous Maintenance

All academic libraries across the world use and trust COUNTER usage reports to inform renewal and new purchasing decisions, to inform faculty about the value of the library and its resources, and to understand user behavior and improve the user experience. The COUNTER Code of Practice enables content providers to produce consistent, comparable, and credible usage data for their online content. This allows librarians and other interested parties to compare the usage data they receive, and to understand and demonstrate the value of the electronic resources to which they subscribe. In July 2017, COUNTER published Release 5 of the Code of Practice. This new release has several advantages over the previous releases, providing greater flexibility and clarity.