Inheritance: Defaulting xml:lang

Unlike the typical attribute in an XML document, the value of xml:lang is inherited down the XML document tree hierarchy. If an element is in English, all of its descendents (its children and their children and their children …) are expected to be in English, unless the language code is explicitly overridden. This means that a value for xml:lang given on the Article element is assumed to describe all content in the document unless there is another overriding xml:lang value on a component inside the document (such as a specific table or a foreign phrase). So, for example, if a document is identified as being in English (xml:lang="en"), it is assumed that all of the words in that document (whether in text, headings, equations, or tables) are in English, unless the document also contains, for example, an epigraph in Latin would be identified with <disp-quote xml:lang="la">.

In previous versions of the JATS Tag Sets, the default value of xml:lang was “en” (English) on the top-level element (Article), and also on some lower-level elements (such as the Journal Title, Journal Subtitle, Abbreviated Journal Title, and Sub-article). For articles in English this was redundant; for articles in other languages it required that the default be over-ridden multiple times, which is at best inconvenient and is likely to cause language encoding errors.

The current NISO JATS provides a default value for xml:lang only on the top level (Article) element, so that one over-ride at this point will cast the entire document into whatever language is specified. For example, <article xml:lang="mo"> at the root of a document will indicate that the entire document is in Moldavian except any portions that have been specifically overridden to be in some other language (e.g., <table-wrap xml:lang="de">) indicates that a table is in German.

Recording Both Language and Script

Identification of language using xml:lang is not as simple as it might seem. That is, specifying a language is not always as easy as going to a lookup table of two-letter abbreviation language codes and choosing a code for the language (e.g., “ro” for “Romanian”). While some languages can be identified simply with one value, others have local variations (Canadian French is different in some significant ways from French as spoken in France), and a number of the world’s languages can be represented in more than one script.

NISO JATS uses xml:lang to record both the language and the script. For example, Japanese journal articles may include many scripts including Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, Hiragana and Katakana combined, and ”Japanese“ (which is a combination of Han plus Hiragana plus Katakana). So a Japanese journal editor might need to mark a personal name as written in Kanji as opposed to Katakana (Kana), because “Kana names are frequently used to sort Kanji data” [SPJ Working Group 2010].

In using xml:lang to hold both the language and the script codes, NISO JATS follows the W3C best practice guideline: Network Working Group Request for Comments: 5646 Tags for Identifying Languages [Phillips 2009].

That document defines a language tag as composed of (in part):

• A language code [called a subtag] (using the shortest ISO 639 code and possibly extended language subtags)
• Potentially followed by a hyphen and then
• A script code [called a subtag] (using an ISO 15924 code)
• Potentially followed by a hyphen and
• A region code [called a subtag] (also using an ISO 15924 code)

In Appendix A of that document (informative rather than normative), examples similar to the following are given to illustrate the use of language codes:

• Simple language subtags: fr (French), ja (Japanese), zh (Chinese)
• Simple script subtags:

  • Hans (Simplified variant)
  • Hant (Traditional variant)
• A Language subtag plus a Script subtag:

  • zh-Hant (Chinese written using the Traditional Chinese script)
  • zh-Hans (Chinese written using the Simplified Chinese script)
• A Language-Script-Region subtag combination:

  • zh-Hans-CN (Chinese written using the Simplified script as used in mainland China)
  • sr-Latn-RS (Serbian written using the Latin script as used in Serbia)

The Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) web site maintains the language-subtag registry, the lookup for language and script codes (http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry).

Flexibility of the Basic Personal Name Model

The NISO JATS Tag Set can encode many, if not most, of the name variations found in the published journal articles. In NISO JATS, the Name element is the container for the component elements of personal names, such as Surname and Given Names. The (brand new) model for the Name of a person is:

   ( ( (surname, given-names?) | given-names ),  prefix?, suffix?)

This model provides a great deal of flexibility to deal with many of the world’s naming conventions by allowing a personal name to be:

• Only a Surname element (used for westernized single names such as “Pele”, “Aztek” or “Ice Cube”),
• Only a Given Names element (For Tibetan, Indian, and Burmese names that are single names but not surnames, there is no need to commit the tag abuse of calling this name a Surname, the Given Names element can stand alone.), or
• A Surname followed by a Given Names (the naming pattern typical in American, English, and many European names).

Thus, all of the following are valid NISO JATS Names:

   <name>
    <given-names>Cai-Rang</given-names>
   </name>    
 
   <name name-style="eastern">
    <surname>Chou</surname>   
    <given-names>Hsun-Tse</given-names>
   </name>

   <name name-style="western">
     <surname>Smith</surname>
     <given-names>Jane Alexandra</given-names>
   </name>    

   <name>
    <surname>Cher</surname>
   </name>    

Since it is very important in many cultures, both the Given Names and Surname elements may contain multiple words:

   <surname initials="Q">Llanos De La Torre Quiralte</surname>
   <given-names initials="M">M</given-names>

   <surname initials="L">Lapeyre</surname>
   <given-names initials="KPC">Kenneth Pritchard Carnu</given-names>

When tagging a personal name in NISO JATS, there is no need to separate given names into first and middle, which does ease one editorial burden. This separation can be problematic even in English with combined first names like “Dottie Jean” and “Mary Dawn”:

   <surname initials="W">Williams</surname>
   <given-names initials="DG">Dottie Jean Gray</given-names>

   <surname initials="A">Austin</surname>
   <given-names initials="M">Mary Dawn</given-names>

   <surname initials="U">Usdin</surname>
   <given-names initials="BT">B. Tommie</given-names>

   <surname initials="S">Sperberg-McQueen</surname>
   <given-names initials="CM">C. Michael</given-names>

NISO JATS personal name tagging can be quite flexible. Parts of a name, such as “de” and “de la”, can be tagged in place as they fall within the name, positioned at the front of a name, or relegated to the rear of the surname following a comma:

   <surname>Llanos De La Torre Quiralte</surname>
   <given-names>M</given-names>    

   <surname>Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, de</surname>   
   <given-names>Henri Marie Raymond</given-names>

How Language May Affect a Name

Care needs to be taken with multipart names to divide the components into family names (Surname) and personal names (Given Names) in a culturally appropriate fashion. The finer points of personal names should be determined by native speakers of the specific language in geographically appropriate ways. The following examples illustrate a small bit of the complexity in language-specific naming and show how NISO JATS tagging can be adapted to different naming situations, given sufficient editorial knowledge.

Spanish. The traditional order for Spanish names is first-name/middle-name/first-surname/second-surname, usually indexed by the first surname, which is typically the patronymic. Since “western” sort order sorts by Surname, this style fits NISO JATS modeling well and can be tagged by:

• Placing the first-name and middle names inside the Given Names element;
• Placing both surnames in the proper order inside the Surname element; and
• Setting the Name Style attribute to “western”.

Portuguese. Although Portuguese names may appear similar to Spanish names to a non-native speaker, tagging a Portuguese name is more complex from the NISO JATS perspective. The traditional order for Portuguese names is first-name/middle-name/first-surname(matronymic)/second-surname(patronymic), indexed by the second surname (patronymic) [Black 2003]. If both surnames are placed within the Surname element, as would be done for a Spanish name, the sort and indexing orders will not be correct. Several potential compromises are possible (none completely satisfactory and all verging on tag abuse), including:

• Tagging a single name by placing both surnames inside the Surname element: the patronymic, followed by a comma, followed by the matronymic and setting the Name Style attribute to “western”.
• Creating two names inside a Names Alternatives wrapper. In one of these (the primary name,) recording the full (matronymic then patronymic) surname. In the other alternative Name, placing the first-name, middle name, and matronymic inside the Given-names element; the patronymic inside the Surname element; and set the order to “western”. Use the Specific Use attribute on this second name to describe a use such as sorting or indexing to help prohibit abuse.
• Placing the entire name in a String Name, tag the Given Names, and tag only the patronymic as a Surname, leaving the matronymic as untagged text.

String Name

The String Name is a very loose element, which may contain text, numbers, special characters, generated text, and any or all of the naming elements, such as Surname and Given Names. How much to tag within a String Name must be determined editorially and validated with an external mechanism such as Schematron, since the DTD provides no structure. A String Name can be used to hold: a sort version of a name (for example with accented characters replaced with lower-ASCII letters), a full name in display order (for example, as a byline that does not require recombining name components), name components with unusual punctuation or spacing between them, or the text of a name for which the given-names/family-name distinction does not exist or cannot be determined.

Here is a fully-tagged String Name:

   <string-name>
     <prefix>The Honorable</prefix> <given-names>John Mesach 
     Irving Browning</given-names> <surname>Jones</surname>, 
     <suffix>III</suffix>
   </string-name>

   <string-name>The Honorable <given-names>John Mesach Irving  
     Browning</given-names> <surname>Jones</surname>, III
   </string-name>

   <string-name>Prince Charles</string-name>

Thus String Name can be a mechanism for providing a display version for less regularly-constructed names such as Arabic names. Traditional Arabic names (with some variation by tribe, region, and country) do not follow the western style of first-names/middle-names/last-names; rather they contain (potentially) 5 parts: “ism”, “kunya”, “nasab”, “laqab”, and “nisbah”, arranged in varying order. The “ism” is (usually and only approximately) the given name. The “kunya” is an honorific not typically printed or displayed. Both the “laqab” and the “nisbah” can be used as surnames but are not in all cases. The “nasab” is frequently, but not always, the patronymic [Notzon and Nesom 2005].

In the NISO NISO JATS Archiving Tag Set, String Name may be used everywhere that Name is allowed, but in the NISO JATS Publishing Tag Set, String Name is only allowed within Name Alternatives.

Name Display Order

NISO JATS name tagging also handles the more basic cases of name display order. The Name Style attribute records the preferred display order for a name, for example between Eastern and Western display order (“Toshiro Mifune” versus “Mifune Toshiro”). Name Style information can be used for choosing an inversion algorithm for sorting, for ordering the names for display, or for other processing functions. The attribute Name Style can be used on both Name and String Name so that “eastern”, “western”, or “islensk” sort and display order can be specified, even for a name with many untagged components.

The values of the Name Style attribute and their approximate meanings are given below.

• When the value is “western”

  • The display order is: given (Given Names) followed by family (Surname); and
  • The sort/inversion order is family (Surname) then given (Given Names).
• When the value is “eastern”

  • The display order is: family (Surname) followed by given (Given Names); and
  • The sort/inversion order is family (Surname) then given (Given Names).
• When the value is “islensk”

  • The display order is: given (Given Names) followed by patronymic (Surname); and
  • The sort/inversion order is given (Given Names) then patronymic (Surname).

Here are two samples of Name Style in use:

   <name name-style="western">
     <surname>Jones</surname>
     <given-names>John Mesach Irving Browning</given-names>
     <prefix>The Honorable</prefix><suffix>III</suffix>
   </name>
 
   <name name-style="eastern">
     <surname>Chou</surname>   
     <given-names>Hsun-Tse</given-names>
   </name>    

Note: Whether a name is “eastern” or “western” in style does not refer to the characteristics of the name, but to the desired display and sort order. For example, both of the following are valid names that reflect the preference of the author for the family-name-followed-by-given-names display order:

   <name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="en">
     <surname>Nakanishi</surname>
     <given-names>Hidehiko</given-names>
   </name>

   <name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="ja-Kana">
     <surname>ナカニシ</surname>
     <given-names>ヒデヒコ</given-names>
   </name>

Note: Perhaps a western bias has not left NISO JATS entirely, because the default value for the attribute Name Style is “western”.

Name Alternatives: More than One Name for an Individual

As part of the considerable effort toward internationalization and multiple language support that was undertaken for the latest NISO JATS, a new wrapper element was added to hold more than one version of a personal name. There is no limit to the number of alternatives that may express a single name; thus it is possible to name the same person in, for example, Hiragana, Katakana, and a Romanized form in the Latin alphabet.

The Name Alternatives element can be used to record:

• Alternative versions of a name in multiple native languages and multiple scripts (as has already been shown);
• Versions of a name with and without ligatures and diacritics so that display can show an “é” and indexing, sorting, or searching can revert to an accentless lower-ASCII “e”.
• Transliterated versions of an name;
• Vancouver-style abbreviated names (Smith AK, Jones BC, Bloggs TC); or
• Additional names for indexing (For example, it may be desirable to record in an XML database all the name variants for an individual, from “President Thomas Jefferson” to “Long Tom”, with the attribute Specific Use marking “primary” versus “index”.).

It is critical that multiple names be clearly tagged as alternatives to avoid the implication of multiple authors when more than one form of a name is given. The new Name Alternatives element groups multiple versions of the name of one person in the same way that the Alternatives element groups processing alternatives for one graphic or one table. These multiple names are processing alternatives, since an application must choose whether to display or otherwise use only one of the names or more than one.

The content of the Name Alternatives element is one or more Name and/or String Name elements. Note: This new element thus introduced String Name into the NISO JATS Publishing Tag Set, where it had not previously been allowed. Within the Publishing Tag Set model, String Name is permitted only as an alternative. The Tag Library documentation for Publishing states that a String Name should not be used for the primary name, which should still be tagged in strict order with a Surname element, followed by a Given Names element, et al. Name Alternatives should be used in Publishing only to support language variants or indexing and searching alternatives.

The Name Alternatives element is allowed in all the places Name is allowed, with the typical usage expected to be inside a Contributor element. (Note: Therefore, for both Archiving and Publishing Tag Sets, the new element can occur inside: Contributor, Element Citation, Mixed Citation, Person Group, Principal Award Recipient, Principal Investigator, Product, Related Article, and Related Object.)

Here are three alternatives, showing the same name in long display form, with parts identified, and abbreviated display form:

   <name-alternatives>
     <string-name 
       specific-use="display">José del Pogo García</string-name>
     <name name-style="eastern">
       <surname>del Pozo García</surname>
       <given-names>José</given-names>
     </name>
     <string-name 
       specific-use="abbrev-form">Pozo Garcia J del</string-name>
   </name-alternatives>

Here are three alternatives, showing the same name in three language/script variants:

   <name-alternatives>
     <name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="ja-Jpan">
       <surname>中西</surname> 
       <given-names>秀彦</given-names>
     </name> 
     <name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="en">
       <surname>Nakanishi</surname>
       <given-names>Hidehiko</given-names>
     </name> 
     <name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="ja-Kana">
       <surname>ナカニシ</surname>
       <given-names>ヒデヒコ</given-names>
     </name> 
   </name-alternatives>

Here are two String Name alternatives, showing the same name in display form and abbreviated form:

   <name-alternatives>
     <string-name 
       specific-use="display">PM Sudha</string-name>
     <name><given-names initial="PM">Sudha</given-names>
     </name>
     <string-name 
       specific-use="abbrev-form">Sudha PM</string-name>
   </name-alternatives>

Here are three alternatives, showing the same name as a formal name, as a common name, and as typically abbreviated.

   <name-alternatives>
     <name content-type="formal-name" xml:lang="fr">
       <surname>Giscard d'Estaing</surname>   
       <given-names>Valéry Marie René Georges</given-names>
     </name>
     <name content-type="common-name" xml:lang="fr">
       <surname>Giscard d'Estaing</surname>
       <given-names>Valéry</given-names>
     </name>
     <string-name 
      specific-use="abbrev-form">Giscard d'Estaing V</string-name>
   </name-alternatives>

Affiliation Alternatives

The NISO JATS Affiliation Alternatives element can record Affiliation names (such as universities) in more than one language, by collecting together all the representations of a single Affiliation; the xml:lang attribute can be used to distinguish the different Affiliation elements for separate processing. It will be up to an application to determine how multiple versions of a single affiliation are processed. In the example below, the xml:lang is placed on the institution; if it were more appropriate, the xml:lang attribute could be placed on the Affiliation element.

    <aff-alternatives id="aff1"> 
      <aff>
       <institution xml:lang="en">Institute for the German 
         Language (IDS) </institution>
      </aff>
      <aff> 
        <institution xml:lang="de">Institut für Deutsche
         Sprache </institution>
      </aff> 
    </aff-alternatives>

The Affiliation Alternatives element might be used to record:

• The name of an affiliation in multiple languages (for example, a university name in Korean or Chinese-Han characters and a transliterated version of the same name in the Latin alphabet);
• The name of an affiliation in multiple script combinations for a single language (for example, a university name in Japanese [xml:lang="ja-Jpan" for Han + Hiragana + Katakana] and the same university name written in Kanji [xml:lang="ja-Hani"]);
• An alternate affiliation for sorting or searching (for example, a name in French with accented letters (such as an “é”) and a plain-letter lower-ASCII version of the same name with “é” replaced by “e” for sorting. (Note: The the Specific Use attribute can be used to indicate that the ASCII version is only for “sorting”, not for display.)

Using Affiliation Alternatives

To tag several language-variant institutions, the Institution element inside an Affiliation does not repeat, but the entire Affiliation element does, taking an xml:lang attribute to identify the language of the Affiliation variant. Repeating the enclosing element (Affiliation) rather than the institution name (Institution) allows any elements within the Affiliation, such as Address or Country, also to be provided in an alternative language.

The Affiliation Alternative element can be used anywhere that Affiliation is allowed. In the NISO JATS Publishing Tag Set, this means that the elements Affiliation and Affiliation Alternatives are allowed inside Article Metadata, Collaboration, Contributor, Contributor Group, Front Stub (for Sub-articles) and Person Group (inside citations). In Archiving, the elements Affiliation and Affiliation Alternatives may be in all of these places as well as inside Signature Block elements.

Linking a Contributor to an Affiliation

Many, if not most, NISO JATS-based tag sets tie each contributor to his or her affiliation(s) using the XML ID/IDREF mechanism of XML. In a mono-language document, an ID-type (named “id”) attribute is placed on each Affiliation element

   <aff id="xyz-1">...</aff>

   <xref ref-type="aff" rid="xyz-1"/>).

When Affiliation Alternatives are tagged, it is best practice to place the ID-type attribute (that for a single affiliation would have been placed on the Affiliation element) onto the Affiliation Alternatives wrapper element instead. There is a single ID-type attribute, because there is only one institution, and putting the ID on the wrapper makes it clear that this is a connection between a contributor and a single affiliation, however many names are provided for that institution:

   <aff-alternatives id="aff1"> 
     <aff xml:lang="en"> ... Affiliation in English...</aff>
     <aff xml:lang="sv"> ... Affiliation in Swedish...</aff> 
   </aff-alternatives>

Some publishers have chosen a more complicated and less straight-forward technique and place an ID on only one of the alternatives, thus marking it as the preferred display alternative while still providing language variants:

   <aff-alternatives> 
     <aff id="aff3">
      <institution xml:lang="ja-Jpan">国立言語学博物館</institution>
     </aff>
     <aff> 
       <institution xml:lang="en">National Museum of
         Linguistics</institution> 
     </aff> 
   </aff-alternatives>

Graphics and Media

Graphics and media objects are non-XML objects, typically a binary format such as .png, .jpg, or one of the video formats. In spite of that, there may be writing displayed in a picture, or the speech in a video may be in a particular language. Thus, both the Graphic and Media elements are cases of the wrapped-repetition solution, repeated inside an Alternatives wrapper and given an xml:lang attribute to differentiate.

In this example, we are trusting that the “classic” images are the same, differing only in internal language:

   <graphic 
      xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
      xlink:href="http//www.zeed.org/publicimages/classic-en.jpg"
      xml:lang="en">
   </graphic>
   <graphic 
      xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
      xlink:href="http//www.zeed.org/publicimages/classic-fr.jpg"
      xml:lang="fr">
   </graphic>

Tables

In NISO JATS, if a table (a structure of rows and columns) is provided in several forms or languages, all of the versions of the tabular material are wrapped in an Alternatives element inside a Table Wrap element. Alternatives may include structural tables in several languages, as well as format variants for table display such as Graphics and Preformatted Text versions of the table.

For example, a Table Wrap element might contain:

• A Caption (which does not repeat, but can take an xml:lang attribute, as can the paragraphs inside it);
• An Alternatives element containing all of the following options:

  • Table (xml:lang="ru" for an XHTML structural table in Russian)
  • Table (xml:lang="en" for an XHTML structural table in English)
  • Preformatted Text (xml:lang="en" for a preformatted text of the table, in English)
  • Graphic (xml:lang="ru" for a graphic representation of the table in Russian)
  • Graphic (xml:lang="en" for a graphic representation of the table in English)

Article Body in Multiple Languages

There are several solid solutions in use (and many more proposed) to handle documents that exist in many languages simultaneously (for example, the laws of the European Union). Many Canadian documents do not name a primary language; the copy of record exists simultaneously in both English and French. NISO JATS was not designed to cope with true multilingual documents such as these.

However, a useful solution to the problem of a complete article body in two or more languages (both French and English) can be found in the Sub-article element. Each language is treated as a separate Sub-article under the master Article, one Sub-article for each language. This works well for the French/English Canadian examples we have seen (mainly editorials and short features), in which all the figures and tables are placed in the common Floats Group element at the end of the main article. The main article need contain no text, only metadata, with all narrative content in the Sub-articles. This works also for the two-column multi-language examples (one column in English and the parallel column in Japanese) we have seen that share a single set of figures and tables.

One advantage of this technique is that this is not just a repeated Article Body with a language attribute; each Sub-article may include a full set of language-specific metadata. Search results in either language bring a reader to the single Sub-article. Each Sub-article contains its own references and, if these figures and tables are not shared, its own mono-lingual figures and tables.

Multiple Language References in a Single Reference List

Even within a single-language article, there may be bibliographic references in languages other than the primary language of the article. This is especially common if the material being cited is in a language other than that of the article.

If the entire Reference element is in German (xml:lang="de") in an otherwise English Reference List, no special NISO JATS handling is required. The full Reference or the citations inside it (Mixed Citation and Element Citation) may take the xml:lang attribute "de" to declare their language. Note that this xml:lang records the language of the citation, not necessarily the language of the cited work.

Here are two valid references as they might appear in an almost-all-English References List:

   <ref id="r27">
     <label>27) </label>
     <mixed-citation publication-type="journal" xml:lang="ja">
       <person-group person-group-type="author">
         <name><surname>&#x4F0A;&#x85E4;</surname>
           <given-names>&#x96C5;&#x548C;</given-names></name>
         <name><surname>&#x5CA1;&#x672C;</surname>
           <given-names>&#x771F;&#x7531;&#x7F8E;</given-names></name>
         <name><surname>&#x9234;&#x6728;</surname>
           <given-names>&#x5553;&#x4E09;</given-names></name>
         <name><surname>&#x67F4;&#x7530;</surname>
           <given-names>&#x96C5;&#x535A;</given-names></name>
         <name><surname>&#x4F50;&#x3005;&#x6728;</surname>
           <given-names>&#x5EB7;&#x96C4;</given-names></name>
       </person-group>, <source>&#x65E5;&#x672C;&#x539F;&#x5B50;
       &#x529B;&#x5B66;&#x4F1A;&#x8A8C;</source>&#x3001;
       <volume>36</volume>[<issue>11</issue>], 
       <fpage>1055</fpage>&ndash;<lpage>1058</lpage>
       (<year>1994</year>). 
     </mixed-citation>
   </ref>

   <ref id="r29">
     <label>28) </label>
     <mixed-citation publication-type="journal">
     <string-name><surname>Weissert</surname>,  
     <given-names>W</given-names></string-name>, 
     <string-name><surname>Wan</surname>,  
     <given-names>T</given-names></string-name>, 
     <string-name><surname>Livieratos</surname>,  
     <given-names>B</given-names></string-name>, 
     <string-name><surname>Katz</surname>,  
     <given-names>S</given-names></string-name>. <article-title>
     Effects and costs of day-care services for the chronically ill: a
     randomized experiment</article-title>. <source>Medical
     Care</source> <year>1980</year>;<volume>18</volume>:
     <fpage>567</fpage>&ndash;<lpage>584</lpage>. [<pub-id 
     pub-id-type="pmid">6772889</pub-id>].</mixed-citation> 
   </ref>

Multiple Single-language Reference Lists

In other multi-language documents, the entire Reference List may be provided in two or more languages. This also requires no special structures or handling in NISO JATS: the Reference List element is allowed to repeat, and each Reference List takes an xml:lang attribute. Some publishers prohibit this practice because they fear it could artificially double the number of citations.

Citations in Multiple Languages

In some multi-language documents, a single citation or parts of the citation may be provided in two or more languages. Great care must be taken to tag a multi-language citation as one citation so that it will be seen as a single citation and referenced from within the document as a single citation identifier. Because one Reference may legitimately contain more than one citation (Mixed Citation or Element Citation), just repeating the citation with an xml:lang attribute is not an adequate solution. Such content would be properly interpreted as two citations inside a single Reference.

A study of multi-language citations in many journals showed that the style for publishing such references varies from one publisher to another.

• Some publishers cluster all the elements of one language together (a full citation in French followed by the same full citation in English);
• Some publishers intersperse single-language clusters of a second language inside a citation that is largely in a single primary language; and
• Some publishers alternate languages (Article Title in English followed by Article Title in Japanese; Source in English followed by Source in Japanese).

NISO JATS enables many techniques for making multi-language references, but does not prescribe any one technique, thus allowing a publisher to determine the mixture. NISO JATS tagging copes with the great variability by marking individual elements within a citation (Article Title, Source, Publisher, etc.) with xml:lang to indicate those elements in a language other than the primary language of the document. When the two languages are sequential (all Japanese elements followed by all English elements) this solution has the less-than-optimal property that there is no “wrapper” element around all the parts of a single language. Since all other styles of interspersed languages within a reference were resolved by the xml:lang solution, perhaps this infelicity is more philosophical than practical. (If a publisher or archive were so inclined, they could delineate the first part of a citation as in language one and the second part as in language two, and use milestone elements to mark the two parts. We do not recommend this approach.)

Here is a citation with several components marked with languages:

   <ref>
     <mixed-citation publication-type="journal" 
      publication-format="print">
     <string-name>
     <surname>Llanos De La Torre Quiralte</surname> 
     <given-names>M</given-names></string-name>, 
     <string-name>
     <surname>Garijo Ayestaran</surname> <given-names>M
     </given-names></string-name>, <string-name>
     <surname>Poch Olive</surname> <given-names>ML
     </given-names></string-name>. 
     <article-title xml:lang="es">Evolucion de la mortalidad 
     infantil de La Rioja (1980-1998)</article-title> [<trans-title 
     xml:lang="en">Evolution of the infant mortality rate 
     in la Rioja in Spain (1980-1998)</trans-title>]. 
     <source xml:lang="es">An Esp Pediatr</source>. <year>2001</year> 
     <month>Nov</month>;<volume>55</volume>(<issue>5</issue>):
     <fpage>413</fpage>-<lpage>420</lpage>. Figura 3, Tendencia 
     de mortalidad infantil [Figure 3, Trends in infant 
     mortality]; p. 418. Spanish.</mixed-citation> 
   </ref>

For creating multi-language references, NISO JATS Tag Libraries make a number of Best Practice recommendations, which we have expanded below:

• A contributor name in more than one language should be placed inside a Name Alternatives grouping element. This ensures that one author does not get cited multiple times for a single article. All the named alternatives in such a grouping represent the same author.
• An Article Title in more than one language may either use the Translated Title element for the second title, or use the element Article Title for both titles, with an xml:lang attribute to differentiate the two. When there are two primary languages, best practice is to tag two separate and equal Article Title elements, differentiated by a language attribute. With a primary title and an obvious translation (for example, an Article Title in Korean and the transliterated Romanized title in English) the Translated Title element could be used as an alternative. Which of these is best practice depends on editorial design and the ability of expected search services (e.g., When a title search is performed, does the search engine just hunt through Article Title elements or also through Translated Title elements?).
• A Source (such as a book title or abbreviated journal name) in more than one language may either use the Translated Source element for the second source, or use the element Source for both sources, with an xml:lang attribute. (Note: It is probably a slightly cleaner solution to tag two separate and equal Source elements, differentiated by a language attribute.)
• Other elements within a citation that are present in more than one language may use the xml:lang attribute on each element to mark the language or just mark those in the second (and all subsequent) languages.

Language in which the Cited Article Was Published

NISO JATS has no special element to indicate the language in which a cited article was originally written, and the issue of where and how that is said within a citation (if it is said at all) can be complex. In most journal citations, if a language attribute is set on the Article Title, that can be inferred to be the original language of the article. However, in some journals, particularly those in chemistry and physics, the Article Title is not displayed in the citation and may not be present, even in the electronic record. In this situation, the xml:lang attribute can be placed on the Source element, which names the journal or book in which the article was published. Again, the inference can reasonably be made that the Source is in the language of the article, but some European periodicals publish in multiple languages, so this might be misleading.

It is possible to place xml:lang on all of the elements inside a citation, and that might be definitive. But many journals publish this material in the narrative text of the citation (e.g., the words “(in Japanese)” or “translated from the Russian”). In Mixed Citations, such phrases may just be text; in Element Citations, the material can be tagged as a Comment element with a Content Type attribute indicating that this is language information (for example, “language”, “language-info”, or “original-language”).