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<sec> Section
Headed group of material; the basic structural unit of the body of a document.
Usage/Remarks
A very short article, or a simple article such as an editorial or an obituary, may
contain nothing but paragraphs and other paragraph-level elements such as figures
and tables. But most journal articles are divided into sections, each with a title
that describes the content of the section, such as “Introduction”, “Methodology”,
or “Conclusions”.
Sections are recursive, that is, various levels of sections are indicated by containment,
not by different names for the subsections. A <sec> element may contain lower level sections that are also tagged using the <sec> element, not tagged explicitly as <sec2>, <sec3>, or <subsec1>, etc.
Untitled Sections
In previous versions of this Tag Set, a
<title> element was required on each
section. A title was considered to be the basic requirement for producing an automated
Table of Contents for online viewing of an article, so a title was required. However,
as nice as it would be to keep that requirement, this is a conversion target Tag Set,
and there are at least two circumstances that lead to “title-less”
sections. Conversion experience has shown that some publishers allow loose paragraphs
between sections, and the most logical way to handle these paragraphs is as the
content of untitled sections. Tagged documents have also been seen in which an article
has been made to “look right” by creating the look of a heading using
<bold> inside an otherwise empty
paragraph, rather than using a real title or heading element. So, in this Tag Set,
the
model for section (<sec>) has been redefined to
make the elements <label> (for example,
“4.1.1”) and <title> (for
example, “Temperature Inversions”) both optional. It should be noted
that without true section-level headings it will be difficult to create automatic
Tables of Contents and high-quality web and print displays.
Common Practice
The <sec> element can be used within <back> to tag material that has not been explicitly named as one of the other back matter
components, that is, it is not named as an appendix, an acknowledgment, a glossary,
etc. For example, tables are frequently placed in the back matter, with no other designation
than a label such as “Table 6”, or a title such as “Epochs of Geologic Time”.
Attributes
Multi-lang Attributes
Models and Context
May be contained in
Description
The following, in order:
- <sec-meta> Section Metadata, zero or one
- <label> Label (of an Equation, Figure, Reference, etc.), zero or one
- <title> Title, zero or one
- Any combination of:
- Paragraph-level Display Elements
- <address> Address/Contact Information
- <answer> Answer to a Question
- <answer-set> Answer Set
- <array> Array (Simple Tabulation)
- <block-alternatives> Block-level Alternatives
- <boxed-text> Boxed Text
- <chem-struct-wrap> Chemical Structure Wrapper
- <code> Code
- <explanation> Explanation
- <fig> Figure
- <fig-group> Figure Group
- <graphic> Graphic
- <media> Media Object
- <preformat> Preformatted Text
- <question> Question
- <question-wrap> Question Wrapper
- <question-wrap-group> Question Wrapper Group
- <supplementary-material> Supplementary Material Metadata
- <table-wrap> Table Wrapper
- <table-wrap-group> Table Wrapper Group
- <alternatives> Alternatives For Processing
- <disp-formula> Formula, Display
- <disp-formula-group> Formula, Display Group
- Lists
- Math Elements
- <p> Paragraph
- <related-article> Related Article Information
- <related-object> Related Object Information
- <ack> Acknowledgments
- <disp-quote> Quote, Displayed
- <speech> Speech
- <statement> Statement, Formal
- <verse-group> Verse Form for Poetry
- <x> X - Generated Text and Punctuation
- Paragraph-level Display Elements
- <sec> Section, zero or more
- Any combination of:
Content Model
<!ELEMENT sec %sec-model; >
Expanded Content Model
(sec-meta?, label?, title?, (address | alternatives | answer | answer-set | array | block-alternatives | boxed-text | chem-struct-wrap | code | explanation | fig | fig-group | graphic | media | preformat | question | question-wrap | question-wrap-group | supplementary-material | table-wrap | table-wrap-group | disp-formula | disp-formula-group | def-list | list | tex-math | mml:math | p | related-article | related-object | ack | disp-quote | speech | statement | verse-group | x)*, (sec)*, (notes | fn-group | glossary | ref-list)*)
Tagged Samples
Nested sections in the <body>
<article dtd-version="1.4"> ... <body> <sec sec-type="intro"> <title>Introduction</title> <p>Geriatric day hospitals developed rapidly in the United Kingdom in the 1960s as an important component of care provision. The model has since been widely applied in several Western countries. Day hospitals provide multidisciplinary assessment and rehabilitation in an outpatient setting and have a pivotal position between hospital and home based services. ... We therefore undertook a systematic review of the randomized trials of day hospital care.</p> </sec> <sec sec-type="methods"> <title>Methods</title> <p>The primary question addressed was ...</p> <sec> <title>Inclusion criteria</title> <p>We set out to identify all ...</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Search strategy</title> <p>We searched for ...</p> </sec> ... </sec> ... </body> <back>...</back> </article>
Sectional <abstract>
<article dtd-version="1.4"> <front> <article-meta> ... <permissions> <copyright-statement>Copyright © 1999, British Medical Journal</copyright-statement> <copyright-year>1999</copyright-year> </permissions> <abstract abstract-type="section"> <sec> <title>Objective</title> <p>To examine the effectiveness of day hospital attendance in prolonging independent living for elderly people.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Design</title> <p>Systematic review of 12 controlled clinical trials (available by January 1997) comparing day hospital care with comprehensive care (five trials), domiciliary care (four trials), or no comprehensive care (three trials).</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Subjects</title> <p>2867 elderly people.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Main outcome measures</title> <p>Death, institutionalisation, disability, global “poor outcome,” and use of resources.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Results</title> <p>Overall, there was no significant difference between day hospitals and alternative services ...</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>Day hospital care seems to be an effective service for elderly people ...</p> <p><boxed-text position="float"> <sec> <title>Key messages</title> <p>...</p> </sec> </boxed-text></p> </sec> </abstract> </article-meta> </front> ... </article>
Alternative Spanish and English Variants of a Section
... <sec id="s0005" xml:lang="en" lang-group="s0005" lang-variant="translation" lang-source="translator" lang-focus="secondary"> <title>Method</title> ... </sec> <sec id="s0011">...</sec> <sec id="s0013" xml:lang="es" lang-group="s0005" lang-variant="original" lang-source="author" lang-focus="primary"> <title>Método</title> ... </sec> ...