Usage Statistics

Access to the JSTOR usage statistics reporting tool is managed through MyJSTOR accounts. This tool allows administrators to manage staff access to usage statistics, schedule recurring reports, and email or export reports in a variety of formats. In order to be set up as an administrator for your institution, you will need to contact JSTOR Support. Once you have an administrator account, you will be able to grant the same privileges to other staff members at your institution if necessary.

JSTOR offers several usage reports to meet your various needs as a librarian. The following reports adhere to Release 3 of the COUNTER code of Practice for Journals and Databases:

Journal Report 1 – This report shows the number of successful full-text article requests by month and journal for your institution.
Journal Report 1a – This report shows the number of successful full-text article requests of archival content by month and journal.
Database Report 3 – This report shows the total number of searches and sessions by month and the type of service to which your institution subscribes.

The following reports are also available to administrators:

Journal Report 1b – This report (not COUNTER compliant) shows the number of successful full-text article requests for current subscriptions by month and journal. This report is useful for looking at CSP title usage separately from archival usage.
Summary Usage Report – This report details the usage statistics specific to your institution compared to those in your category (Very Large, Large, Medium, Small, etc.), as well as to all institutions.
Detailed Usage Report – This report provides usage statistics with a variety of perimeters available for inclusion. You can group the report by publication or JSTOR discipline (Biological Sciences, History, Sociology, etc).

Definition of Perimeters

COUNTER Reports abide by information industry standards for reporting online usage statistics in a consistent and compatible way. These reports serve librarians, publishers, and others interested in learning about the institutional use of a resource like JSTOR. Explore the definitions of terms relevant to COUNTER reports.

The terms used in a Summary Usage Report are defined as follows:

Mean: average use of your institution as compared to other institutions in your category, as well as institutional use overall.
Median: use of your institution compared to another institution in your category representing the exact middle of usage. This is useful if there are extreme values that would otherwise skew the comparison of institutional usage.
Minimum: use of your institution compared to the institution in your category with the lowest recorded usage of JSTOR.
Maximum: use of your institution compared to the institution in your category with the highest recorded usage of JSTOR.

The terms used in a Detailed Usage Report are defined as follows:

List of All Volumes and Issues: refers to the issues of each publication being accessed.
List of pamphlets: refers to the pamphlets being accessed from the 19th Century British Pamphlets Collection.
Summary: refers to the Summary pages being accessed. The Summary page was previously named "Item Information."
Table of Contents: refers to the table of contents for a particular issue that is accessed.
Full-Text PDF (PDFs Viewed): refers to the number of times a PDF is accessed and viewed.
Full-Text HTML (Articles Viewed): refers to the number of times an article is accessed and viewed in JSTOR (not downloaded as a PDF).
Full-Text Page HTML (Pages Viewed): refers to the number of pages of the article being viewed in JSTOR (not downloaded as a PDF).

To access JSTOR usage statistics from 1997-2009, you will need to use our original usage statistics tool at http://stats.jstor.org/. Unlike the current usage statistics reporting tool, which is tied to an authorized MyJSTOR account, access to this tool is IP-based. In order to access these usage statistics successfully, you have to access this site through an IP address that we have on file for your institution.

When you go to http://stats.jstor.org, select either of the links under the "Individual Institution Statistics" heading, and you will be able to access your statistics without entering a username and password. Our server automatically looks at the IP address of your machine, determines your site affiliation, and returns statistical data for your specific institution.

Once you have submitted your request, the usage statistics report is processed immediately. Help files accessible from the form and the report contain detailed explanations of the form options and report results. If you have any questions about these statistics, please contact JSTOR Support.

If your institution has any subscriptions hosted by JSTOR through our Current Scholarship Program, you will now use the JSTOR usage statistic reporting tool to track usage. JSTOR took over usage statistic tracking for our partner presses when the Current Scholarship Program began in 2011. Usage statistics for these journals are automatically included in all JSTOR reports with the exception of Journal Report 1a, which is limited to archival content accesses.

The JR1b report contains usage statistics for current content in JSTOR. This is a supplementary report (not a COUNTER report) that, along with JR1a, is useful for institutions participating in both the JSTOR archive collections and the Current Scholarship Program. JR1a shows the number of successful full-text article requests for archive content – in this case, all content that is not included in a current subscription. JR1a and JR1b are mutually exclusive reports.

The separation between current content and archive content is determined by the Digital Availability Date of each title. This is the fixed date from which current subscriptions grow. In some cases, the moving wall for titles within the JSTOR archive collections overlaps with the Digital Availability Date, so some usage from your institution may appear on the JR1b report even if your institution does not have a current subscription to these specific titles.

If you are interested in your organization's overall usage, you will likely want to continue running the JR1 COUNTER report, which will provide you with a complete view of your usage statistics that is not divided between current and archive content.

Pre-2011 CSP Statistics

If you are looking for pre-2011 usage statistics of Current Scholarship Program titles, you will need to contact JSTOR Support directly. The statistics are not included in our usage statistics reporting tool, but JSTOR Support can often send them to you upon request.

Usage statistics for consortia are available to the designated administrator of a consortium who aggregates statistics for all member institutions. Access to the consortial usage statistics reporting tool is managed through a MyJSTOR account with administrative privileges. This tool allows administrators to manage staff access to usage statistics, schedule recurring reports, and email or export reports in a variety of formats. In order to be set up as an administrator for your consortium, you will need to contact JSTOR Support. Please specify if you require privileges to pull separate reports for institutions that are within the consortium, and we will make sure to add the necessary rights to your MyJSTOR account.

JSTOR offers several usage reports for consortia to meet your various needs as an administrator. The following reports adhere to Release 3 of the COUNTER code of Practice for Journals and Databases:

Consortium Report 1 – This report shows the number of successful full-text journal article or book chapter requests by month, broken down by individual institution and the publication.
Detailed Usage Report – This report shows the total searches and sessions by month and service, includes totals for all institutions within the consortium.

The following reports are also available to administrators:

Summary Usage Report – This report details the usage statistics for specific institutions that are within the consortium compared to those in your category (Very Large, Large, Medium, Small, etc.), as well as to All Institutions. The Summary Usage Report is broken down by institution.
Detailed Usage Report – This report provides the summary usage statistics for the consortium with a variety of perimeters available for inclusion. You may group the report by publication or JSTOR discipline (Biological Sciences, History, Sociology, etc.)

You may schedule reports to be viewed online or delivered automatically in a variety of file formats to as many people as you want. The last step of the usage statistics reporting tool before submitting a request is the Report Scheduler. This step allows you to name a report and choose a repeat option, from one time to monthly. You can also choose to view the report or have it sent in an email to yourself in HTML, tab delimited, and XML formats.