Re: [jats-list] Linking <contrib> to <aff>

["Pieter Lamers pieter.lamers@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Michael,

I now see that you suggested that it is extremely common to have a 
single affiliation in humanities.
I just sampled our article publication records since 2020:
10.4k articles
17.8k contribs
18.4k xrefs (all but two being of @xref-type 'aff', the others simply 
lacking the attribute)
further break-down yields the following:
16198 contrib records with a single xref
1083 contrib records with multiple xrefs
526 records without xrefs (primarily editorials and such).

So you are right that it is extremely common to have just a single 
reference with just 6% of contribs having more than one, but more than 1 
in 10 articles contain one or more contributors that do, unless my math 
hold an error.

for further disclosure and maybe of use to others, below is the XQuery I 
wrote to collect the numbers.

Best,
Pieter

let $coll := collection('/db/data/journals.benjamins.com')/article/front/article-meta[pub-date/year gt '2019']

let $authors as element(contrib)+ := $coll/contrib-group/contrib
let $single-aff-authors as element(contrib)+ := $authors[count(xref) eq 1]
let $multi-aff-authors as element(contrib)+ := $authors[count(xref) gt 1]
let $no-aff-authors as element(contrib)+ := $authors[count(xref) eq 0]

return
( 'total ' || count($authors/xref)
, 'single ' || count($single-aff-authors)
, 'multi ' || count($multi-aff-authors)
, 'no aff ' || count($no-aff-authors)
)




On 16/12/2025 06:41, Pieter Lamers pieter.lamers@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi Michael,
>
> I see two major problems with your use of @rid.
> 1. it does not tell what kind of reference we are seeing; it is 
> possible to have other kinds than affiliation.
> 2. it does not allow for multiple references, unless you'd be willing 
> to have *rid="af1 af2"* for an author with multiple affiliations, 
> which would require decomposing the attribute value at all times.
>
> Best,
> Pieter
>
> On 15/12/2025 22:41, Michael Boudreau mboudreau@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've been discussing with our platform vendor a feature that doesn't 
>> support our practice of linking article authors and their 
>> affiliations via contrib/@rid and aff/@id, e.g.,
>>
>> <contrib-group>
>> \xA0 \xA0 <contrib contrib-type="author" rid="af1">
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 <string-name name-style="western">
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 <given-names>Sam</given-names>
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 <surname>Masur</surname>
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 </string-name>
>> \xA0 \xA0 </contrib>
>> \xA0 \xA0 <contrib contrib-type="author" rid="af2">
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 <string-name name-style="western">
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 <given-names>Sadie</given-names>
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 <surname>Green</surname>
>> \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 \xA0 </string-name>
>> \xA0 \xA0 </contrib>
>> \xA0 \xA0 <aff id="af1">Harvard University</aff>
>> \xA0 \xA0 <aff id="af2">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</aff>
>> </contrib-group>\xA0
>>
>> The vendor points out that the preferred way of linking <contrib> and 
>> <aff> is with a contrib/xref[@ref-type="aff"], which the JATS 
>> documentation indeed labels a "best practice": 
>> https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/tag-library/1.2/element/contrib.html
>>
>> I'm wondering if someone can elaborate on the rationale for 
>> recommending <xref> and whether there's anything inherently 
>> problematic with the markup illustrated above. It strikes me as, at 
>> least, simple and unambiguous, well suited for articles whose authors 
>> have a single affiliation, as is extremely common in the humanities 
>> and social sciences.
>>
>> --\xA0
>>
>> Michael R. Boudreau
>>
>> Electronic Publishing Technology Manager
>>
>> The University of Chicago Press
>>
>> 1427 E. 60^th \xA0Street
>>
>> Chicago, IL 60637
>>
>> _www.journals.uchicago.edu <http://www.journals.uchicago.edu>_
>>
>> \xA0
>>
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>
> -- 
> Pieter Lamers
> John Benjamins Publishing Company
> Postal Address: P.O. Box 36224, 1020 ME AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
> Visiting Address: Klaprozenweg 75G, 1033 NN AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
> Warehouse: Kelvinstraat 11-13, 1446 TK PURMEREND, The Netherlands
> tel: +31 20 630 4747
> web:www.benjamins.com
>
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-- 
Pieter Lamers
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Postal Address: P.O. Box 36224, 1020 ME AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
Visiting Address: Klaprozenweg 75G, 1033 NN AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
Warehouse: Kelvinstraat 11-13, 1446 TK PURMEREND, The Netherlands
tel: +31 20 630 4747
web:www.benjamins.com