Custom Dimensions

Custom dimensions and metrics are additional data that can be sent with events. They are split into 3 scopes, user, event and item. This is a change from Universal Analytics, and is well documented elsewhere so it isn't detailed here.

There are 3 places where custom dimensions can be set:

• Configuration settings
• Shared event settings
• Event fields to set

Configuration settings

Within the GA4 Google Tag you can use the "Configuration Settings Variable" to set configuration parameters. These are not custom dimensions, and we recommend only valid parameters should be set here.

Think of this as how your GA configuration should function, rather than what data it should send along with hits.

Shared event settings

Shared event settings are parameters that will be sent with every event. There is a list of 'valid' parameters, but this is also where we would add 'page level' custom dimensions.

Event fields to set

These are parameters that apply to a specific event. For data-track events, we hav

How does this work with data-track

The data-track tag has an additional shared event settings variable, where we set all of the allowed custom dimensions, such as category, action, label, context etc.

Note that when using the data attribute API, link_text, link_urls, file_name, and file_extension will automatically be sent as parameters if applicable.

Commonly used configuration settings

Name	Scope	Type	Example value	Description
send_page_view	Event	Boolean	true	TODO

Commonly used shared event settings

User scoped

Name	Scope	Type	Example value	Description
authorization_status	User	String	1	1 / 0 to represent authorized / not authorized
bpid	User	String	3000093925;3001592458;3002782314;3003810391	Business Partner ID- used to identify B2B partners
resolved_by	User	String	IP	TODO
sap_hybrid_id	User	String	D9757671118F1EEF95B4942C6490C8A9	TODO
sap_outbound_id	User	String	8B125A75F34234CE0A32B254C77610DA0DF8	TODO
snid	User	String	f6f43599-019c-48f8-8bb3-c4051b84faac	TODO
user_search_version	User	String	4	The search version a user is set to use on Discovery

Event scoped

Name	Scope	Type	Example value	Description
ab_test_value	Event	String	nature-onwards-journey=false	TODO
access_type	Event	String	open	TODO
article_type	Event	String	case report	TODO
associated_content_types	Event	String	research	TODO
book_product_type	Event	String	encylopaedia	TODO
book_series	Event	String	Methods in Molecular Biology	TODO
book_series_id	Event	String	558	TODO
book_title	Event	String	Computer Vision – ECCV 2024	TODO
collection_id	Event	String	bhfffjiadc	TODO
collection_journal_id	Event	String	12859	TODO
collection_journal_titles	Event	String	BMC Medicine	TODO
content_cms	Event	String	polopoly	TODO
content_id	Event	String	article	TODO
content_type	Event	String	article	TODO
country_code_non_customers	Event	String	US	TODO
custom_defined_referrer	Event	String	https://www.google.com/	TODO
darwin	Event	String	true	TODO
doi	Event	String	10.1038/s41586-022-05232-9	TODO
e_isbn	Event	String	978-94-007-0753-5	TODO
eisbn_formatted	Event	String	9781441910059	TODO
full_html	Event	String	Y	TODO
ga_session_id	Event	String	1731609155	TODO
ga_session_number	Event	String	1	TODO
grid_id	Event	String	grid.459983.a	TODO
has_body	Event	String	Y	TODO
is_authorized	Event	String	Y	TODO
journal_id	Event	String	41598	TODO
journal_pcode	Event	String	Nature	TODO
journal_title	Event	String	scientific reports	TODO
logged_in_to_sn_profile	Event	String	true	TODO
magazine	Event	String	true	TODO
oa_licence	Event	String	true	TODO
open_access	Event	String	true	TODO
organization_name	Event	String	Springer Nature Affiliates	TODO
organization_name_non_customers	Event	String	China Mobile	TODO
organization_type	Event	String	Education	TODO
organization_type_non_customers	Event	String	Education	TODO
page_type	Event	String	article	TODO
pisbn_formatted	Event	String	9783319246109	TODO
pmc	Event	String	L	TODO
pmc_primary_subject	Event	String	Medicine & Public Health	TODO
pmc_secondary_subject_1	Event	String	Plant Sciences	TODO
pmc_secondary_subject_code_1	Event	String	L24000	TODO
primary_article_type	Event	String	reviews	TODO
pub_date	Event	String	2025-03-06	TODO
publisher_brand	Event	String	Springer	TODO
recommendation_algorithm	Event	String	where-to-submit--collection; 0.0.1	TODO
rs_embedded_user	Event	String	true	TODO
rs_model	Event	String	xgboost	TODO
rs_policy_id	Event	String	speedy-BootstrappedUCB	TODO
rs_recommender	Event	String	semantic	TODO
rs_timestamp	Event	String	1715487816	TODO
search_term	Event	String	machine learning	TODO
snapp_submission_id	Event	String	39c49657-2977-4c9c-980e-910344f0d6a4	TODO
snt	Event	String	Geology	TODO
subject_terms	Event	String	psychology	TODO
token_in_url	Event	String	prtst0416p	TODO
user_registered	Event	String	true	TODO
user_skipped_address_page	Event	String	true	TODO

Commonly used individual event settings

Name	Scope	Type	Example value	Description	Status
action	Event	string	Open search tray	Describes what the user did	Deprecated (superceded by the event name)
category	Event	string	Header	Describes the context within which an event happened	Deprecated (superceded by context)
label	Event	string	Button	Provide specific detail about the event or element, such as whether it was a link or a button	Active
context	Event	string	Site header	The context within which an event happened, can be applied to the track element, or a parent element. Similar to the legacy data-track-component.	Active
index	Event	number	1	The index/position of the item in a list	Active
item_id	Event	string	C_12345	The ID of the content interacted with	Active
method	Event	string	Dialog	The method in which the interaction happened	Active
type	Event	string	C_12345	A more generic type than content_type, e.g. link or button	Active
value	Event	string	Home	A value that identifies a particular item by name, e.g. the text of a something	Active

Heads Up!

If you want to use the custom dimensions in reports and explorations, you must register them in the GA interface. Contatct GA Enablement if you wish to have a new custom dimension set in GA.

You might see a value of (not set) for a custom dimension during the first 48 hours.