Cookies

To help improve this site we place small files, known as cookies, onto your computer. Some are essential for the site to work properly, others are to improve the experience you have.

You can stop this site using non-essential cookies by updating your browser settings.

You can also decide to stop this or any site from using any cookies. To learn more about cookies and how to manage them visit AboutCookies.org.

Cookies - group of people at a laptop

You can change your cookie preference on openathens.net by clicking this button:

How we use cookies

We use cookies for several purposes on this website (openathens.net) – we’ve listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they’ll last.

For details of the cookies we use on the operational parts of our OpenAthens service, visit the cookie page for products and services.

Cookies to improve your experience

You can tell us to stop using these at any time by updating your browser settings.

Essential cookies

Website operation

The system that runs our website sets cookies to allow it to run smoothly.

Name Category Expiration Description
cookie_notice_accepted Necessary 1 month Stores your cookie consent state for this website.

Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use our site, and rough demographics as to what groups of people are using our site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting your needs and to understand how we could improve it. As well as controlling this above – you can opt out of Google Analytics tracking directly.

Google Analytics stores information about:

  • the pages you visit
  • how long you spend on each page
  • how you got to the site
  • what you click on while you’re here

The following cookies are set by Google Analytics:

Name Category Expiration Purpose
_ga Performance 2 years This cookie is associated with Google Universal Analytics. It is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session, and campaign data for the site's analytics reports.

Measuring website usage (Hotjar)

Hotjar cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. This might include what you are doing on our website and how you are interacting with it. We use this to better understand how people experience our website, so we can improve our features and user experience. For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site. You can opt-out of Hotjar cookies on the Hotjar website.

The following cookies are set by Hotjar:

Name Category Expiration Description
_hjid Performance 1 year Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set when you first land on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist a random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
_hjTLDTest Necessary Session When the Hotjar script executes we try to determine the most generic cookie path we should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, we try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed.
_hjFirstSeen Necessary 30 minutes The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of your user journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.
_hjIncludedInPageviewSample Necessary 2 minutes This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether you're included in the data sampling defined by this site's pageview limit.
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress Necessary 30 minutes The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of your user journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.
_hjIncludedInSessionSample Necessary 2 minutes This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether you're included in the data sampling defined by this site's daily session limit

Measuring website usage (Matomo)

Our website uses Matomo to gather usage information which helps us understand how the website is being used and identify areas for improvement. Matomo is an open-source analytics tool and an alternative to Google Analytics. You can find out more about Matomo on their website: https://matomo.org/about. Matomo respects any ‘do not track’ settings in your web browser.

Name Purpose Expires
_pk_ref Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website 6 months
_pk_cvar Short lived cookies used to temporarily store data for the visit 30 minutes
_pk_id Used to store a few details about the user such as their unique visitor ID 13 months
_pk_ses Short lived cookies used to temporarily store data for the visit 30 minutes
mtm_cookie_consent Records you have consented to Matomo tracking your activities 30 years
mtm_consent Records you have consented to Matomo tracking your activities using the opt in button 30 years
mtm_consent_removed Records that you have removed consent for Matomo to track your activities using the opt out button 30 years

NB: Cookie guidance wording adapted from gov.uk, shared under the Open Government License.