IRUS-US Community

Lyrasis is the exclusive distributor of IRUS in the United States. The IRUS-US program is open to all US organizations regardless of Lyrasis membership; please contact sheila.rabun@lyrasis.org if your organization is interested.

Participating organizations enable the IRUS tracker protocol functionality in their repository software, which allows Jisc to collect raw usage data and filter out any spider or bot activity. Usage data is then processed into COUNTER 5 conformant statistics that are made openly available as reports and visualizations with search and filter functionality in the IRUS portal. IRUS also has an Application Programming Interface (API) for retrieving usage data, and a widget that can be embedded to show usage numbers directly within a repository user interface.

IRUS is currently compatible with the following repository software platforms:

• Cayuse
• DSpace
• Eprints
• Esploro
• Equella
• Fedora - Samvera
• Fedora - Other
• Figshare
• Worktribe

For more information about the specifics of IRUS with each software platform, see the IRUS Implementation webpage. Please contact us regarding other systems not listed here.

$1,500/year for single repository (+ $750/year per each additional repository)

Organizations may subscribe at any point during the year. Renewal notices are sent each fall to confirm subscription for the next calendar year.

IRUS normalizes institutional repository usage data so that organizations can track their repository usage stats alongside subscription journal and book usage, rather than having to rely on traditional non-specific website reporting. Through IRUS, organizations can better gather the data needed to assess the value of local collection materials, open access as opposed to closed content, funded research outputs, and how patterns of use might be changing over time.

Organizations participating in IRUS-US will be able to:

• Save time on licensing with a Service Level Agreement negotiated by Lyrasis on behalf of subscribing institutions—no institutional signatures required
• Enjoy a flat yearly subscription fee (see above) for easy budgeting
• Get COUNTER-conformant statistics for demonstrating repository usage and scholarly impact alongside subscription materials (with usage exclusions to ensure that bots and rogue users do not skew usage numbers)
• Gather information needed to answer questions about value, interest, reach, and impact of local materials over time
• Determine usage of repository items based on standard identifiers such as author ORCID iDs and item DOIs
• Access downloadable stats reports and data visualizations
• Share usage information with other stakeholders, such as individual researchers, administrators, and funders
• Compare usage information with peer institutions
• Identify institutional and cross-institutional trends based on usage stats

• George Mason University
• Lyrasis
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 
• University of Delaware
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• University of Michigan
• Virginia Tech
• Vivli