Thoth Sphinx

Built on top of Thoth Obelisk, Thoth Sphinx gives publishers a unified, privacy-respecting view of how their open access titles are discovered, accessed and used across platforms. Built in partnership with the OPERAS Metrics service, it turns usage data from multiple sources into a single dashboard, reports and on-page widgets.

Sphinx in a nutshell

Includes everything in Thoth Obelisk, plus:

• Normalised usage data collected from the platforms you distribute to;
• A publisher-branded dashboard for exploring usage against your Thoth metadata;
• Breakdowns by platform, geography, date and key metadata fields;
• CSV export and downloadable PDF reports;
• An embeddable book-level usage widget for your landing pages.

Cross-Platform Usage Metrics

Thoth Sphinx brings together usage data from the places your readers actually find your books: Google Books, the OAPEN Library, and files hosted via Thoth File Hosting or on your own website.* Rather than logging in to each platform separately, you see it all in one place. Behind the scenes, the data is aggregated and standardised through the OPERAS Metrics service and matched to your titles using their Thoth identifiers, such as DOIs and ISBNs, so every download and view is attributed to the right book or chapter. For a closer look at sources and methods, see our dedicated Usage Metrics service page.

Publisher dashboard

Your publisher dashboard gives you a view of your whole catalogue at a glance: how usage is trending, which titles are performing best, and how individual books and chapters are doing over time. You can narrow the picture by platform, country or date range, or by metadata fields such as subject, language or funder, to answer the questions that matter to you. When you need to share the results, export the data as CSV or download a ready-made PDF report for funders, boards or your annual report.

Book-level Usage Widget

Usage data shouldn't stay behind a login. Sphinx includes an open-source widget that shows each title's engagement directly on its book landing page, so readers, authors and funders can see a book's reach for themselves. It comes built into every Thoth Pyramid website and can be embedded on any other publisher site with a few lines of code. To see it in action, visit a book page on the Open Book Publishers or punctum books websites.

Privacy by design

Understanding your readers shouldn't come at the cost of their privacy. Sphinx works with aggregated usage data that complies with GDPR, rather than profiling individual readers or relying on advertising-driven analytics. That makes it a natural fit for Thoth's wider commitment to openness: like the metadata and software behind it, your usage insights are built on transparent, community-governed infrastructure rather than proprietary platforms.

Expanding data coverage

Thoth works alongside a wider group of stakeholders to develop community-led governance for the OPERAS Metrics service and to broaden the sources it covers. Further platforms, such as JSTOR and Project MUSE, are part of those conversations, and we will add them to Sphinx as they become available. Which platforms matter most to your press? Let us know at info@thoth.pub, and help us shape what comes next.

Footnote:

* Usage from a publisher's own website depends on data delivery to OPERAS Metrics.