JATS4R – standardising the way XML content is tagged to enhance publishing workflows and reusability
Abstract
See video of the presentation.
There are many participants in the publishing ecosystem and all have a vested interest in labelling content in a consistent manner so interchange between systems, processes and parties is made easier. Reuse and discoverability of final output is greatly increased by consistent labelling. XML is the standard interchange format favoured at the end of the publishing process, but this is moving upstream in an effort to save processing time as well as allowing standards to form for common systems earlier in the process, for example at submission.
The JATS4R (JATS for Reuse) working group is composed of all parties in the publication process (e.g. publisher, submission system, traditional production vendor (typesetting/composition), online host, data repository and data miner).
To this end, in April 2015 two formal JATS4R recommendations were published: license information and math representation.
To check whether content is compliant with the recommendations, we have built a JATS4R validation tool (http://jats4r.org/validate/).
A side, but important aim of the group is to encourage and enable publishing staff to gain confidence and control over their XML. We recognise many small (and large) publishers may leave these decisions to their vendors and online hosts. We hope to encourage an interest in XML and help demystify it for people who are processing content on a day-to-day basis, so they have a greater understanding of the decisions they make and the wider implications.

Copyright (c) 2015 Melissa Harrison

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).