Usage Statistics for University of Tasmania EPrints Repository

The dataset is an active collection of access data to information items in the University of Tasmania's EPrints repository. Each night a task is scheduled to run, and this picks up in the Apache access logs from where it left off the previous night. Each download of an open access full-text item causes the generation of a database record in the MySQL database, together with a timestamp, and an approximate location of the computer system generating the download. This is achieved by looking up the IP address against the GeoIP database, with one significant difference. Downloads originating from a University of Tasmania IP address are separately identified, and removed from the Australia category. This eliminates vanity searches from achieving high significance. Countries are coded using the ISO3166 two-letter code.

The dataset has been used to analyse the usage made of the repository and to tune it to achieve maximal visibility for the University of Tasmania. Researchers with items in the repository have used it to identify the types of use being made of their work, and to find potential collaborators. The citation of a work in a journal or conference article, for example, causes a typical step in usage, and the citing article can be searched in Google or Google Scholar to identify the authors. This enhances the dissemination experience and its value.

The software was written in the University of Tasmania by Professor Arthur Sale (in php) based on earlier work by the University of Melbourne (with permission). Mr Christian McGee wrote some critical sections of the code in perl, and set up the cron scheduling.

The dataset is generated by a computer program written by Professor Arthur Sale. The software was a test bed for ideas, and subsequently resulted in an official software set included in the EPrints distribution. This set expanded on the concepts significantly