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

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

Hi Ken,

The reason that the sample you reference includes *<xref>* elements with no
actual content and* <aff>* elements with no labels is because this is a
sample from the JATS Publishing DTD (blue). In this DTD, it is expected
that the rendering system will potentially come up with the proper
superscripts and labels and render them as you would expect them without
bothering to include all that visual information in the original XML.

If you are like me and would rather have all that information explicit in
the XML for reasons of archivability and preservability, then you should be
looking at the JATS Archiving DTD (green). If you take a look at the
corresponding XML samples for *<contrib>* in that DTD, you will find all
the superscripts and labels you are looking for:
https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/tag-library/1.4/element/contrib.html

Best,
Nikos


On Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 4:07b/AM G. Ken Holman g.ken.holman@xxxxxxxxx <
jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> (trying again but with a properly positioned graphic; apologies for the
> bandwidth)
>
> This very topic came up for me at https://RealtaOnline.com
> <https://realtaonline.com/> last week, Michael. Thank you for bringing
> this up for discussion.
>
> Personally, I agree with you and I prefer your way and not the recommended
> way found in the example at:
>
>
>
https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/1.3/FullArticleSamples/pnas_s
ample.xml
>
> <contrib-group>
> <contrib contrib-type="author">
> <name>
> <surname>Sullivan</surname>
> <given-names>Amy D.</given-names>
> </name>
> <xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="FN150">&#x002A;</xref>
> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/>
> </contrib>
> <contrib contrib-type="author">
> <name>
> <surname>Wigginton</surname>
> <given-names>Janis</given-names>
> </name>
> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/>
> </contrib>
> <contrib contrib-type="author">
> <name>
> <surname>Kirschner</surname>
> <given-names>Denise</given-names>
> </name>
> <xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="FN151">&#x2020;</xref>
> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/>
> </contrib>
> </contrib-group>
> <aff id="aff-1">Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University
> of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0620</aff>
>
> Note how the three <xref> elements of ref-type="aff" are empty of content,
> and the target <aff> element has no title or label to use as clickable text
> for the cross reference. Currently, my XSLT/XSL-FO stylesheet generic
> fallback for such a cross reference is to assume this was an authoring
> error and I use the identifier as clickable text ... but when this example
> document came along, I was disappointed with this visual result:
>
> [image: image.png]
>
> This begs the question for me "is the recommended empty cross reference
> only a semantic link for search or association purposes without any kind of
> visual rendering?"
>
> Therefore, should I, as a vendor, assume that a cross reference that has
> no clickable content and points to an item that has no identifiable title
> or label simply not be rendered because it is assumed to be an internally
> expressed semantic or association?
>
> The problem with that assumption, though, is that the documentation
> doesn't state what an associated referenced identifier semantic actually
> is. The supplied example XML clarifies the semantic by saying
> ref-type="aff", though I feel this could be implied by the semantic of the
> element pointed to by the referenced identifier.
>
> In your example, I would make the rendered name the clickable text to
> visualize the referenced identifier of the affiliation. Would that be an
> acceptable rendering to you?
>
> If not, what would you have a vendor do with your specific markup in your
> example (if you and I choose not to follow the recommendation)?
>
> Thank you for your insights here.
>
> . . . . . . . Ken
>
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