article-version-type Type of the Article Version Statement

This @article-version-type identifies the type of information contained in the <article-version> element.

Usage/Remarks

The JATS element <article-version> may contain a variety of content such as: a word or phrase from a controlled vocabulary (for example, “Proof” from the NISO JAV (Journal Article Versions) recommendation), a non-JAV version status (“draft”), a version statement (“Second revised version”), a version number (“2-a”), or other version identifier. The @article-version-type attribute can be used to help explain and identify this information. The @article-version-type attribute could be used to record, for example, a NISO JAV version abbreviation (“VoR”) or a publisher’s version type “status”.

Best Practice

Because the <article-version> element is so loosely defined in JATS, the element should always be given either a @vocab attribute naming the controlled vocabulary from which the status term is taken or an @article-version-type attribute naming the type or kind of status identifier given in the element content. For example:
  • Controlled Vocabulary: If the article version element content is from a taxonomy, ontology, index, or similar term source (such as the NISO JAV recommendation), the @vocab attribute should name the vocabulary, and the @vocab-identifier provide a URI or other identifier to the vocabulary. The @vocab-term attribute can provide the term source canonical version, if the element content does not, and the @vocab-term-identifier attribute may point to the term, if appropriate. The @article-version-type is not strictly necessary, but can be used to record, for example, the NISO JAV short version identifier.
  • Version Number or Uncontrolled Vocabulary: For <article-version> content that is not based on a controlled vocabulary, the @article-version-type should be used to explain what the content means, as expressed in the Publisher’s vocabulary, for example, “status”, “web-host-version-identifier”, or “publisher-control-number”.
Case In Attribute Values
Upper/lower/mixed case in attribute values for organizations and identifier types is likely to be variable and thus unreliable for search/discovery. If possible, JATS recommends a case-insensitive search for such values. For example, if an identifier type is the Version of Record, many publishers will use “vor” (to keep all attribute values lower case), while others will use “VOR” (because that is the native language acronym), while still others will use the JAV value “Version of Record”.
OPTIONAL on element: <article-version>
Value Meaning
Text, numbers, or special characters The type of version number or version status identifier that identifies this version of the article.
Restriction @article-version-type is an optional attribute; there is no default.

Suggested usage

NISO JAV Recommendation: While the <article-version> element is free form, which may contain any content from a complicated version description to a controlled vocabulary value or simple version number, publishers may choose to follow the guidance of the NISO versioning recommendation for journal articles (NISO-RP-8-2008: NISO Journal Article Versions recommendation, known as JAV).
The JAV recommendation defines version identifiers such as “Proof” (abbreviation “P”), “Author’s Original” (abbreviation “AO”), “Version of Record,” (abbreviation “VoR”) and “Corrected Version of Record” (abbreviation “CVoR”). For a complete value list and formal definitions, see the NISO RP-8-2008 Recommendation (www.niso.org/publications/rp/RP-8-2008.pdf). JATS Best Practice is to use the JAV descriptor as the content of the <article-version> element. The NISO JAV descriptor may be repeated in the @vocab-term attribute for interoperability and should be placed in the @vocab-term if the element content describes a JAV concept but does not use the JAV descriptor. The @article-version-type can also be used to identify the version type as a NISO JAV abbreviation.
Tagged Sample

Two samples where the @article-version-type holds the NISO JAV abbreviation

...
<article-meta>
 <article-id pub-id-type="other">jBMJ.v324.i7342.pg880</article-id>
 <article-id pub-id-type="pmid">11950738</article-id>
 <article-version vocab="JAV" 
   vocab-identifier="http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/RP-8-2008.pdf"
   article-version-type="VoR"  
   vocab-term="Version of Record">version-of-record</article-version>
 ...
 <title-group>...</title-group>
 ...
</article-meta>
...
...
<article-version vocab="JAV" 
  vocab-identifier="http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/RP-8-2008.pdf"
  article-version-type="AO"  
  vocab-term="Author's Original">preprint</article-version>
...