Re: [jats-list] Best Practice Reference Format

Subject: Re: [jats-list] Best Practice Reference Format
From: Debbie Lapeyre <dalapeyre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:40:39 -0500
Norias--

Best Practice

There is no best practice distinction between using <element-citation>
and using <mixed-citation>. Both can be equally powerful in describing
the parts of a citation.

To make sure we agree on our terms:

1) In <element-citation> there are NO punctuation and spaces and
these must be programmatically added when the citation is displayed
or printed. Yes, software will need to do the work of punctuating.

2) In <mixed-citation>, you tag what you see, all spacing and punctuation
are present. How much else you tag is up to you, and all components may be
tagged.

Which to Use

Which to use is a business decision not a technical decision.

Some publishers and archives prefer <element-citation> BECAUSE there is
no punctuation; if you generate all spacing and punctuation you can guarantee
that your archive and your display will be consistent.

Some publishers and archives prefer <mixed-citation> in order to be able to
capture whatever spacing and punctuation the original journal used, because
exact fidelity is important. These archives admit that their displays will not
all be the same, but that is good since not all sources were the same.

Inserting Punctuation with Software

No matter how good your software, the automatic insertion of
punctuation and spacing will be problematic in some cases. I have seen
software do a pretty good job with the more usual citation types (journal
articles and books), but there are many odd types of citations, where
even reasonable people might disagree on the correct punctuation. In such
cases software is likely to punctuate in ways people do not expect, so
automated punctuation can look surprising on display.

Citation Types and QA

Another factor that sometimes influences the decision of which to use is
Quality Assurance error checking. It is slightly simpler to check that the
elements within a citation are present and in a particular order using
<element-citation>. But since the DTD cannot help you check presence or
sequence for either citation type, and <mixed-citation> can be checked for
both sequence and inclusion as well (just not as simply), this argument
has become less persuasive over time.

Hope that helps.

--Debbie

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Deborah Aleyne Lapeyre               mailto:dalapeyre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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