What Is JATS XML?

JATS (Journal Article Tag Suite) is the XML standard for encoding the full content and metadata of academic journal articles for archiving, indexing, and interoperability.

Definition

JATS (Journal Article Tag Suite) is a set of XML standards maintained by NISO (National Information Standards Organization) that defines how the full content and metadata of an academic journal article should be encoded in XML. A JATS XML file contains the article's complete text, structured sections, figures, tables, references, author affiliations, and all metadata in a machine-readable format.

JATS is the interchange format used by PubMed Central, CrossRef, DOAJ, and major indexing databases. It enables full-text indexing, accessibility tools, translation services, and long-term digital preservation.

JATS XML Structure

A JATS XML article document has three main sections:

<front> — Journal metadata (ISSN, journal title), article metadata (title, authors, affiliations, abstract, keywords, DOI, publication date, funding)
<body> — Full article text structured as sections (<sec>), paragraphs (<p>), figures (<fig>), tables (<table-wrap>), and equations (<disp-formula>)
<back> — References (<ref-list>), appendices, glossaries, and acknowledgements

Frequently Asked Questions

JATS XML is required by PubMed Central, required for the DOAJ Seal, and strongly preferred by Scopus and other indexing bodies. It provides a machine-readable version of article content that enables full-text indexing, accessibility, and long-term preservation.

Manually writing JATS XML is technically complex. Journal management platforms like ScholarJMS generate JATS XML automatically from structured article metadata, removing the need for manual XML authoring.

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