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

["G. Ken Holman g.ken.holman@xxxxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 17/12/2025 16:21 +0000, Michael Boudreau mboudreau@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>With regard to your question:
>
>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?
>
>I would say yes: Ibd take an empty <xref> to be a purely semantic link. In
our own XML, at least, we prefer not to rely on downstream processing to
generate any content that will be visible to the reader. Better to have it
explicit in the XML as early as possible for copyediting and proofing.

Perfect. Thank you, Michael. I will check with my colleagues before making the
change, but you have convinced me.

Your comment "not to rely on downstream processing to generate any content" to
me is a corollary to our existing credo "render everything the user gives us
so there is no lost content". In this case, the user is giving us nothing to
render, so don't generate content.

I appreciate you taking from your time.

. . . . . Ken


>--
>Michael R. Boudreau
>Electronic Publishing Technology Manager
>The University of Chicago Press
>1427 E. 60th Street
>Chicago, IL 60637
>www.journals.uchicago.edu
>
>From: G. Ken Holman g.ken.holman@xxxxxxxxx
<jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Date: Monday, December 15, 2025 at 8:07b/PM
>To: jats-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <jats-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [jats-list] Linking <contrib> to <aff>
>
>(trying again but with a properly positioned graphic; apologies for the
bandwidth)
>
>This very topic came up for me at
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://RealtaOnline.com__;!!BpyFHLRN4TMTrA!-CKW
NzgrncArAh63GcNBJMBeBDIo0hWsspWvX16Y9qrr5w_3Lt2NBLYbNBt_WerbZxajnU6PMi3KqUD5t
T764utJmmqdaHrIBB9N5nyCxA$>https://RealtaOnline.com last week, Michael. Thank
you for bringing this up for discussion.
>
>Personally, I agree with you and I prefer your way and not the recommended
way found in the example at:
>
><https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library
/1.3/FullArticleSamples/pnas_sample.xml__;!!BpyFHLRN4TMTrA!-CKWNzgrncArAh63Gc
NBJMBeBDIo0hWsspWvX16Y9qrr5w_3Lt2NBLYbNBt_WerbZxajnU6PMi3KqUD5tT764utJmmqdaHr
IBB-5yuOfRA$>https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/1.3/FullArticleS
amples/pnas_sample.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:
>
>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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