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  5. JATS 1.4

JATS 1.4

Table of Contents

Introduction

Taylor & Francis systems are being updated for JATS version 1.4. At the present time, production file deliveries should continue to use JATS version 1.2.

The latest release of JATS, version 1.4, was approved by NISO on October 31, 2024. Taylor & Francis is updating to use JATS version 1.4 beginning in 2025.

JATS version 1.4 is backwards compatible with earlier versions of JATS, meaning that documents created with JATS version 1.2 are still valid under the JATS 1.4 DTD. It is important to note, however, that changes outside of the DTD, such as changes to validation rules, tagging instructions, and publication data, may cause older documents to no longer be valid.

Taylor & Francis is leveraging this backward compatibility feature of JATS to adopt an iterative approach for our upgrade to JATS version 1.4 from earlier versions of JATS.

The first step is to begin using the DTD for JATS version 1.4 in place of the earlier version 1.2 DTD. This involves using a new DOCTYPE at the beginning of article XML files, and updating systems to add the DTD for JATS version 1.4 with an XML Catalog. See Document Type Declaration.

Then over time, changes will be introduced to utilize the new structures (elements and attributes) that are available in JATS version 1.4 and discontinue the use of structures that have been deprecated. See XML tagging changes.

Journal issues that are produced during the transition to JATS 1.4 may contain a mix of some articles that use JATS version 1.4 and some articles that use JATS version 1.2.

Document Type Declaration

The document type declaration (DOCTYPE) is located at the beginning of an XML document to identify the document type definition (DTD) that governs the structure of the document. Taylor & Francis article XML files that use JATS version 1.4 must begin with a DOCTYPE which links to the DTD for JATS Archiving and Interchange with OASIS Tables and MathML 3 version 1.4 hosted by NLM, as shown here:

<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Archiving and Interchange DTD with OASIS Tables with MathML3 v1.4 20241031//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/1.4/JATS-archive-oasis-article1-4-mathml3.dtd">

If the XML Schema is used, the xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation attribute must contain the complete URL as shown here:

<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Archiving and Interchange DTD with OASIS Tables with MathML3 v1.4 20241031//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/1.4/JATS-archive-oasis-article1-4-mathml3.dtd">
<article xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/1.4/xsd/JATS-archive-oasis-article1-4-mathml3.xsd">

See DOCTYPE for more details.

XML Catalog

A XML Catalog should be configured to resolve the DOCTYPE declaration to a locally held copy of the DTD. Using an XML Catalog allows software to use a local copy of a DTD, avoiding the need for DTD files to be retrieved from a remote location and thereby reducing processing times.

A zip package containing the DTD, XSD, and XML Catalog for JATS 1.4 is available here jats14-dtd-xsd-xml-catalog-2025-02-07.zip.

To use the XML Catalog:

  1. Save the DTD and XSD for JATS 1.4 to the local file system.
  2. Add a XML Catalog to resolve the DOCTYPE to the local copy of the DTD. An XML Catalog, typically a file named catalog.xml, contains mapping entries that associate a Public Identifier and System Identifier URL with local files.
  3. Configure software to use the XML Catalog. Software that processes XML can usually be easily configured to add an XML Catalog, although the exact details vary by software application.

The DTD contained in this zip package is a minified copy of the JATS Archiving and Interchange DTD with OASIS Tables with MathML3 v1.4.

Schematron

The Schematron validation rule JATS-0043-002 which checks DOCTYPE has been updated for JATS version 1.4. Schematron version 1.17 (or newer) should be used for validating JATS 1.4 files. This Schematron update is available on the Download page.

Sample files for testing

Sample files can be created as needed by modifying any existing valid JATS 1.2 file and editing the article XML to replace the DOCTYPE for JATS 1.2 with the DOCTYPE for JATS 1.4:

<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Archiving and Interchange DTD with OASIS Tables with MathML3 v1.4 20241031//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/1.4/JATS-archive-oasis-article1-4-mathml3.dtd">

If the xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation attribute is present on the <article> element, also replace the URL for the JATS 1.2 XSD with the URL for the JATS 1.4 XSD.

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/1.4/xsd/JATS-archive-oasis-article1-4-mathml3.xsd"

Sample files for testing should cover the following scenarios (as applicable):

  • Article file in which the article XML uses the DOCTYPE for JATS 1.4.
  • Issue file in which all article XML files use the DOCTYPE for JATS 1.4.
  • Issue file in which some article XML files use the DOCTYPE for JATS 1.4 and others use the DOCTYPE for JATS 1.2.

XML tagging changes

Over time, and driven by priorities, Taylor & Francis tagging instructions and validation rules will be updated to utilize the new structures (elements and attributes) that are available in JATS version 1.4 and discontinue the use of structures that have been deprecated.

Detailed explanations of the changes in each version of JATS are available in the JATS Tag Library documentation and in the Journal Article Tag Suite Conference (JATS-Con) Proceedings linked below.

New structures

This list summarizes the new structures that have been added to JATS since version 1.2 and provides links to the JATS Tag Library for each element and attribute. The topic pages linked below will be reviewed and updated as needed.

Deprecated structures

Certain structures (elements and attributes) have been identified as deprecated in JATS 1.4, meaning that the use of these structures is discouraged because better options are now available. Deprecated elements and attributes are still available in JATS for compatibility reasons.

Following the initial change to begin using the JATS 1.4 DTD, Taylor & Francis’ tagging instructions will be updated in accordance with these changes where updates are needed to avoid the use of deprecated structures. In some cases, Taylor & Francis’ tagging instructions are already in alignment with the latest recommendations from NISO. The topic pages linked below will be reviewed and updated as needed.

  1. The translation elements have been deprecated and their preferred replacement elements are listed below. See Language and Translations for details.
    1. <trans-abstract> (Translated Abstract) - instead use <abstract>
    2. <trans-title-group> (Translated Title Group) - instead:
      1. In <title-group> repeat the <title-group>
      2. In <journal-title-group> repeat the <journal-title-group>
      3. In <issue-title-group> repeat the <issue-title-group>
    3. <trans-title> (Translated Title) - instead:
      1. In citation contexts use <article-title> or <part-title>
      2. In <title-group> use <article-title>
      3. In <journal-title-group> use <journal-title>
      4. In <issue-title-group> use <issue-title>
    4. <trans-subtitle> (Translated Subtitle) - instead:
      1. In <title-group> use <subtitle>
      2. In <journal-title-group> use <journal-subtitle>
      3. In <issue-title-group> use <issue-subtitle>
    5. <trans-source> (Translated Source) - instead use <source>
  2. The collaborative author group elements and their preferred replacement elements are listed below. See Collaborative Group Authors for details.
    1. <collab> (Collaborative Group Author) - instead:
    2. Use <collab-name> to hold the name of a collaboration
    3. Use <collab-wrap> to hold a <collab-name> along with a list of the collaboration members.
    4. <collab-alternatives> (Collaboration Alternatives)
  3. The @mimetype attribute should hold a complete MIME Type (Content Type) value. A separate @mime-subtype attribute is not needed. For details see MIME Type, Media, and Supplementary Materials
    1. @mime-subtype (MIME Subtype) - instead use @mimetype
  4. The element for article history dates has been replaced. See Article Event Lifecycle for details.
    1. <history> (History) - instead use <pub-history>
  5. The elements for citing standards documents have been replaced with the publication identifier element. See References for details.
    1. <std> (Standard, Cited) - instead use <pub-id pub-id-type=“std-designation”>
    2. <std-organization> (Standards Organization) - instead include the standard organization’s name within <pub-id pub-id-type=“std-designation”>
  6. The <chapter-title> element has been deprecated, and the elements <source-title> and <part-title> have updated definitions to clarify their usage in references. See References for details.
    1. <chapter-title> — instead use <part-title>
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