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

["Nikos Markantonatos nikos@xxxxxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Michael.

Pieter already explained the reasons why JATS documentation and more
importantly the JATS4R recommendation suggest the use of *<xref
ref-type="aff">* rather than the *contrib/@rid *to point to an affiliation.

However, I would also stress the ambiguity aspect of the latter proposal.
Typically, this *@rid* attribute on *<contrib>* element is used to point to
an author note or an author bio, or even a footnote, for instance to
indicate that authors contributed equally to the article, even though an
*<xref>* element with a proper *@ref-type* would still be preferable in
these cases.

It can become quite ambiguous if you start using this single attribute to
reference one or more affiliations along with everything else, without even
having the ability to include superscript markers or other visual cues to
point to the corresponding affiliation labels. So although it is valid
according to JATS DTD, it is a semantically inferior solution to the one
recommended by the documentation.

Regards,
Nikos

On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 11:41b/PM Michael Boudreau mboudreau@xxxxxxxxxxxx <
jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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>
>     <contrib contrib-type="author" rid="af1">
>         <string-name name-style="western">
>             <given-names>Sam</given-names>
>             <surname>Masur</surname>
>         </string-name>
>     </contrib>
>     <contrib contrib-type="author" rid="af2">
>         <string-name name-style="western">
>             <given-names>Sadie</given-names>
>             <surname>Green</surname>
>         </string-name>
>     </contrib>
>     <aff id="af1">Harvard University</aff>
>     <aff id="af2">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</aff>
> </contrib-group>
>
> 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.
>
> --
>
> Michael R. Boudreau
>
> Electronic Publishing Technology Manager
>
> The University of Chicago Press
>
> 1427 E. 60th Street
>
> Chicago, IL 60637
>
> *www.journals.uchicago.edu <http://www.journals.uchicago.edu>*
>
>
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