Distributed Usage Logging collaboration
The Distributed Usage Logging working group is the community group driving the Distributed Usage Logging project, an initiative between COUNTER, Crossref members, and scholarly technology & service providers. This group has been exploring how to provide a peer-to-peer channel for the secure exchange and processing of COUNTER-compliant private usage records from hosting platforms to publishers. This will allow members to capture usage across a distributed environment. All data provided back to the original publisher is anonymized, preserving individual user privacy.
The objectives of the Distributed Usage Logging working group is to address the following:
- Define a way for DOIs to advertise endpoints to which event data may be submitted, including a mechanism to specify the payload schemas that the endpoint accepts.
- Pilot the transmission of COUNTER-usage events from platforms providing direct access to full text to publishers responsible for that full text, using the above mechanism, in a secure manner
- Work out the “rules of the game” for the COUNTER use cases, including message semantics, responsibility for anti-gaming mechanism, etc.
What we’re working on
The working group includes a cross-section of reference manager and reading environment tools (Mendeley and Digital Science’s tools: ReadCube, Papers, and Dimensions) as well as a mix of publishers and platform providers (Elsevier, Springer Nature, De Gruyter, Pub Factory, APS, Wiley, ACS, Atypon).
In November 2020, the Crossref board made a decision to transition ownership of DUL to another organization. We will therefore gradually reduce our involvement with DUL over the next six months and support a transfer to any future lead organization.
At present moment, the following participants have have implemented the technology:
- DUL usage producers: Mendeley, Digital Science (in progress)
- DUL usage consumers: Elsevier.
Resources
Group Members
The group comprises some of our members as well as some third party platforms who are actively interested in participating in a secure exchange of usage records.
Chair: Esther Heuver, Elsevier
Facilitator: Martyn Rittman, Crossref
- Paul Dlug, American Physical Society
- Lorraine Estelle, Project COUNTER
- John Chodacki, California Digital Library
- Paul Needham, Cranfield University
- Johannes Buchmann, De Gruyter
- Nicko Goncharoff, Digital Science
- Oliver Pesch, EBSCO
- Ian Hayes, Atypon
- Tom Beyer, PubFactory
- Maciej Rymarz, Mendeley
- Robert McGrath, ReadCube
- Kimberly Tryka, National Institute of Standards and Technology
- John Connolly, Springer Nature
- Jo Cross, Taylor & Francis
- Clara Brown, United States Geological Survey
- Greg Hargrave, Wiley
- Stuart Maxwell, Scholarly iQ
- Aaron Wood, American Psychological Association
Please contact Martyn Rittman with any questions or to apply to join the working group.