In 2007 the United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG), in association with the online usage metrics organisation COUNTER, published the results of a wide-ranging study which explored how online journal usage statistics might form the basis of a new metric of journal quality. The study combined a web-based survey of opinion with a series of in-depth interviews with stakeholders from the author, publisher and librarian communities. The aim of these twin avenues of research was to examine the ways in which journal quality is currently assessed, and the degree to which any additional usage-based metrics might prove valuable to each stakeholder community, along with practical ways in which such metrics might be derived and constructed to provide the maximum utility for all, within defined resource constraints. Building upon the encouraging reactions revealed in the market research, Stage 2 of the project is developing a programme of data modelling and analysis that will use real usage data from a number of content providers, with the aim of identifying potential candidate metrics for longer term scaled up testing.