FAQ

Using JUSP

How do I access JUSP?

If you are a member of an institution participating in JUSP you can log in and view your institution's usage. From the JUSP website click on Portal in the top right.

At most institutions access is provided through the UK Access Management Federation (UKAMF) and you can log in using your institution's Shibboleth or OpenAthens credentials. If your institution is in both the UKAMF and the OpenAthens Federation then you will see two entries when you search for your institution. In many cases these will be identical and so it doesn't matter which you select. However, if your institution has different metadata for each federation (i.e. treats them as different routes), only one will work. You may need to advise your colleagues which to select.

Some institutions have requested that access be restricted to specific users and in this situation you will be instructed to email a nominated contact to request access the first time you try to access JUSP.

If your institution does not use Shibboleth, OpenAthens or the UKAMF, we can provide you with an alternative login and you can login via the Non-UK Federation route.

If your institution is not yet participating in JUSP you can find relevant information on our library joining page.

What usage data does JUSP hold?

JUSP contains COUNTER-compliant usage data from participating publishers and suppliers. These are presented to libraries in a range of reports through a single gateway.

JUSP collects and holds COUNTER Release 5.1 Title (TR), Platform (PR) and Database (DR) reports from January 2025 onwards, and Release 5 reports from January 2019 onwards. When an institution or supplier joins JUSP, we will collect data back to April 2025 where available.

You can see which reports, months, and suppliers are available for your institution from the portal home page after logging in.

How do I exclude backfile/archive and open access usage?

When viewing COUNTER Release 5.1 and 5 reports, open access usage is excluded by default from the title standard views for journal and book usage (namely TR_B1, TR_J1 and TR_J4). Journal backfile or archive usage can be excluded using publication year information in the TR_J4: Journal Requests by YOP (Controlled) for Release 5.1 (TR_J4: Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding OA_Gold) for Release 5) or TR: Filter Title Master Report.

Can I compare my institution's usage with that of another?

For COUNTER Release 5, if your institution is a member of a consortium with a data sharing agreement (such as SHEDL) additional reports are available to your institution that allow comparison.

It is not possible to compare your usage with a specific institution.

JUSP is working on adding support for COUNTER Release 5.1 consortia reporting.

How do I export and download usage data?

All COUNTER Release 5.1 reports are exportable as CSV. All COUNTER Release 5 reports are exportable as CSV and TSV.

For COUNTER Release 5, it is also possible to harvest the COUNTER standard reports into other library systems via SUSHI (a machine-to-machine interaction). For more information see: How JUSP works with other systems and services.

JUSP is actively working on releasing this feature for COUNTER Release 5.1.

How do I view usage data about conference proceedings?

There are no standard views for conference proceedings, but they are included in the COUNTER Title Report (TR). Use the TR: Filter Title Master Report to view the usage statistics about conference proceedings.

You can find out more about how to use the TR: Filter Title Master Report for COUNTER Release 5 with our guide to Creating tailored views using the TR: Filter Title Master Report – a step-by-step guide [PDF] and video guide How can JUSP filters tailor reports to my requirements?

Note that in COUNTER Release 5, conference proceedings do not have a specific Data_Type and most publishers, including IEEE, use Data_Type=Other. Data_Types for Conference and Conference_Item will be introduced in COUNTER 5.1 which is due for release in February 2025.

Benefits of using JUSP

We already use a library/e-resource management system to collect usage statistics. What value is there in using JUSP too?

There are two key benefits:

  • Jisc handles all data collection, quality assuring data to ensure it is standards compliant and re-harvesting data where a publisher has made a restatement. Therefore, using JUSP's SUSHI server to collect data into your own systems means that you can benefit from this QA process and interact with one SUSHI service to efficiently request multiple publishers. The case study Using JUSP's SUSHI server in conjunction with statistical packages and tools looks at the benefits of using JUSP in this way
  • For Jisc member institutions, Jisc Collections use the aggregated usage data to negotiate with publishers to ensure they obtain the best deals for the community. Collecting data on your behalf provides a more complete picture of national usage and a better dataset for Jisc Collections. A case study Using JUSP to support national negotiations for a better deal illustrates this.

I use OpenAthens for usage statistics. How is JUSP different?

OpenAthens provides a different type of usage data than JUSP. OpenAthens generates statistics based on access to resource platforms. It covers a wide range of resources and provides breakdown by user groups, and so it is useful for understanding user behaviour, analysing usage by user group, and viewing the big picture.

JUSP collects and aggregates standardised COUNTER usage data provided by suppliers. The COUNTER data is more focused on the content detail i.e. usage and access denials for specific books, journal titles, and databases. This is particularly useful for collection analysis, renewals, and purchasing decisions. JUSP builds summary reports based on the COUNTER data provided by publishers and suppliers.

Is it possible to receive reminder emails when new monthly reports are available?

For COUNTER Release 5, you can get a small number of pre-set reports (the 'All Titles', 'Top titles' and 'Summary' reports) delivered to your inbox each month. For further details and to set this up, click on the email link on the landing page after you log in and follow the instructions.

This feature is going to be developed for COUNTER Release 5.1 in the future.

How do I give feedback and make requests?

JUSP is a community-driven service and features and functionality are developed in response to feedback and user requirements.

We have a community advisory group consisting of representative librarians that provides independent, external advice to support JUSP development.

We also report to the Jisc Collections Content Strategy Group that has oversight of JUSP's strategy and direction.

We run a user survey every 1-2 years to evaluate the service and request feedback.

You can also send use feedback, enhancement requests, or questions at any time by contacting the helpdesk [email protected] and including JUSP in the subject.

COUNTER reports

How is temporary free access to content handled in the COUNTER reports?

Publishers and suppliers sometimes make subscription content freely available to certain groups on a temporary basis in response to an event or as part of promotion activity.

When looking at your COUNTER usage reports there are a couple of things to consider:

  • In the COUNTER Release 5.1 reports, free content is "Open" or "Free to Read"
  • In the COUNTER Release 5 reports, free content is not "OA_Gold". Usage will be recorded as "Controlled"
  • Usage and denials are only included in COUNTER reports when the events can be attributed to an institution. The user either needs to be logged in with an institutional account or be within the institutional IP range.

During 2020 this happened on a huge scale in response to the pandemic; to support research and the sudden shift to online learning. The effect on your usage trends will depend on what the supplier offered and if your institution implemented it. For more information about the different scenarios, see our guide on understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on e-resource usage trends.

How do we identify zero usage titles?

If you want to find out which subscriptions or titles in your collection are not being used, it is not possible to do this with COUNTER usage reports alone. You will need to compare the usage reports to a list of titles in your collection. For Jisc agreements, you can view title lists within agreements by searching the catalogue on Licence subscriptions manager.. Alternatively, you can obtain a list from the publisher if you do not have one locally.

In all Release 5.1 and Release 5 reports and views, only titles and databases with usage or access denials are included in the reports.

How JUSP processes data

How often is data held in JUSP updated?

COUNTER reports are produced monthly and for complete months, which means reports for a given month are released in the following month. JUSP gathers the usage data when it becomes available and so this may be at any point during the month.

Sometimes the data is restated at a later date (e.g. corrections are made) and when JUSP is made aware of these instances we will re-harvest and replace the data.

Can JUSP collect usage reports more frequently, e.g. weekly instead of monthly?

No, COUNTER reports are released monthly. Although some vendors provide additional reports directly from their administrator site, the versions of the reports from the COUNTER API (formerly SUSHI) are only available for complete months. We make data available when the publisher releases them, so this could be at any point during the following month.

Do you make any changes to the data?

No. We take the data as provided in the suppliers' COUNTER API (formerly SUSHI) feeds and do not change or manipulate them unless the file fails one of our checking procedures and there's an obvious fix, for example a missing ISSN. The usage figures are never changed. If you are concerned about figures in any report, please contact the helpdesk expressing your concern, and we will investigate. However, note that a supplier would need to restate data before we can re-harvest the data; we would not change any figures directly.

What checks are carried out before loading the data?

The vast majority of the data are collected with no problems, and it is only in a very tiny minority of cases that errors occur, such as a publisher or institution changing credentials, a server being unavailable, or a failure of one of the sanity checks mentioned below.

Data go through several stages before they are accepted into the database.

  1. We run a series of automated checks to ensure that the files are formatted correctly, that identifiers are present and properly formatted, that titles are not incomplete or missing, that values do not fall outside of possible bounds, and that the file format and structure are correct
  2. We generate a load file for each corresponding file that has been collected. Once loaded, we randomly pick a selection of institutions and check that the figures look correct - we cannot do this for every file of course, and we rely on institutions to spot any errors within the data or if anything appears to be missing

How JUSP works with other systems and services

Does JUSP work with other usage statistics products?

Yes. You can use JUSP's SUSHI servers to harvest reports from JUSP into other third-party systems. For R5, this includes Alma, 360 Counter, EBSCO Usage Consolidation, Intota, LibMetrix and OCLC WorldShare License Manager.

Further information about using the JUSP SUSHI server to gather usage data from JUSP and import it into other usage statistics products can be found on the SUSHI server administration / authorisation pages accessible from your JUSP portal welcome page.

Publisher and supplier participation

We would like JUSP to gather usage data from other publishers or suppliers. What do we need to do?

First, check for which publishers and suppliers we collect data on behalf of your institution, by logging in to JUSP and taking a look at the 'Admin' area and the 'Data available at my institution' page. Then check which publishers and suppliers we are working with in the 'Supplier status' page.

You can now look up what details or action JUSP needs to add new data for a supplier/platform. This is available in the new 'Adding new data' page. The 'Individual supplier details' page will also show these instructions for suppliers where we aren't currently collecting R5 data for you.

If we are already working with the supplier, then we can start gathering data on your behalf and collect backdata wherever possible. If they are not yet participating, we can add your expression of interest to our supplier wish list.

What happens when a journal transfers to a different publisher?

If we are already collecting usage from the new publisher for your institution, then this title will start appearing in their usage reports, with the exception of publishers on HighWire where the titles will need to be associated with your HighWire account.

If we aren't already collecting data from the new publisher for your institution, you will need to inform us through the helpdesk.

If the title transfers to a publisher or supplier that is not yet participating in JUSP, we will not be able to collect data from the new publisher until they join but will continue to hold the historical data.

Do we need to supply SUSHI credentials to JUSP for each supplier?

No. Wherever possible we liaise with the supplier directly to set up data collection. In some cases, we do require a few details from you, and we will inform you when this is the case. However, we do need to be informed if you would like us to start gathering data from the JUSP participating supplier.

If a new supplier joins JUSP or transitions to a new platform, we will liaise with them to obtain details for all institutions. In some cases, this may not be possible, and we will notify libraries of this through the mailing list or main contacts as appropriate so that we can gather credentials.

What is required for publisher usage data to appear in JUSP?

For data to appear in JUSP, a publisher or supplier must meet the following criteria:

  • They have been requested by JUSP participating libraries
  • They supply COUNTER-compliant usage statistics reports via the COUNTER API (formerly SUSHI)
  • They have returned a signed Publisher Participation Agreement

Participating libraries add requests to the supplier wish list by contacting to the helpdesk. After receiving a request, Jisc Collections contacts the supplier to provide background information about JUSP, invite them to participate, and respond to any questions or concerns they may have. Once the publisher has signed up to JUSP, we can also work with them to test their COUNTER API (formerly SUSHI) service and COUNTER reports.

Libraries can also encourage publishers and suppliers to join by making them aware of the library's interest in having them participate.