The below resources are aimed at repositories looking to contribute to, and leverage shared approaches to counting views and downloads. If you would like to schedule a meeting with DataCite technical staff to walk through this process or answer questions about the MDC approach to tracking data usage, please get in touch.
Step 1: Normalized & comparable counting
There are two approaches to normalized and comparable counting of views & downloads. A) Use the DataCite Usage Tracker or B) Independently standardize usage at your repository against the COUNTER Code of Practice for Research Data.
Approach A: The DataCite Usage Tracker
DataCite has an embeddable Data Usage Tracker that allows data repositories to collect normalized views and download statistics. Documentation is available at https://support.datacite.org/docs/datacite-usage-tracker, and questions can be sent to support@datacite.org
Approach B: Standardizing against the COUNTER CoP independently
- Processing usage according to COUNTER Code of Practice for Research Data. https://support.datacite.org/docs/processing
https://www.projectcounter.org/code-of-practice-rd-sections/foreword/ - Contributing/publishing normalized usage counts https://support.datacite.org/docs/contributing
Step 2: Retrieving aggregate usage for your repository
Independently of the approach your repository takes for standardizing data usage counts, aggregated usage statistics can be retrieved through the following endpoints.
- Consuming Usage:
https://support.datacite.org/docs/consuming - API Endpoint:
https://support.datacite.org/docs/eventdata-guide#section-usage-events