Web Usage Analysis: New Science Indicators and Co-usage

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel statistical analysis framework for Web usage, providing indicators and tools to analyze user behavior, co-usage patterns, and facilitate decision-making in scientific and commercial contexts.

Contribution

It presents the Miri@d system, a new computer-based tool for Web usage analysis that offers descriptive statistics, indicators, and supports advanced data analysis techniques.

Findings

Development of new Web usage indicators

Introduction of co-usage analysis methods

Provision of a system for online statistical analysis

Abstract

A new type of statistical analysis of the science and technical information (STI) in the Web context is produced. We propose a set of indicators about Web users, visualized bibliographic records, and e-commercial transactions. In addition, we introduce two Web usage factors. Finally, we give an overview of the co-usage analysis. For these tasks, we introduce a computer based system, called Miri@d, which produces descriptive statistical information about the Web users' searching behaviour, and what is effectively used from a free access digital bibliographical database. The system is conceived as a server of statistical data which are carried out beforehand, and as an interactive server for online statistical work. The results will be made available to analysts, who can use this descriptive statistical information as raw data for their indicator design tasks, and as input for multivariate data analysis, clustering analysis, and mapping. Managers also can exploit the results in order to improve management and decision-making.