<abbrev>
Abbreviation or Acronym
Abbreviation, acronym, or emoticon used in the text of a document, possibly including an expansion of the acronym.
Remarks
Usage: Although an abbreviation is typically a few capitalized letters (“NIH”, “WHO”, “UN”, or “GAO”), emoticons (“;-)”) can also be tagged as abbreviations (“smile-wink”).
Linking: The linking attributes (with the standard XLink attributes) may be used to provide a live link to an expansion, definition, or additional explanation.
Conversion Note: Abbreviations, while common in STM books, have been rarely tagged in the STM journal world, and will not be present in many journal tag sets. Thus, converted material cannot rely on acronyms and abbreviations being recognized unless processing has been added to recognize them. This element used to be quite rare in the journal world, but is on the increase for accessibility uses.
Accessibility: Sometimes a <abbrev> needs to be pronounced in a way that is not reflected in its content or its tagging. The @alt attribute can be used to record the pronunciation for screen readers and other accessibility devices. For example, the abbreviation “WHO” might be better pronounced as “World Health Organization” or as “W.H.O.” than as “who”. The @alt attribute can also be used to provide the textual interpretation of a symbol such as an emoticon for (“;-)” use “alt="smile-wink"”).
Attributes
Content Model
<!ELEMENT abbrev (#PCDATA %abbrev-elements;)* >
Expanded Content Model
(#PCDATA | def)*
Description
Any combination of:
- Text, numbers, or special characters
- <def> Definition List: Definition
This element may be contained in:
<addr-line>, <alt-title>, <article-title>, <attrib>, <award-id>, <bold>, <code>, <collab>, <comment>, <conf-theme>, <def-head>, <element-citation>, <fixed-case>, <funding-source>, <italic>, <license-p>, <meta-value>, <mixed-citation>, <monospace>, <named-content>, <overline>, <p>, <preformat>, <product>, <roman>, <sans-serif>, <sc>, <strike>, <styled-content>, <sub>, <subtitle>, <sup>, <supplement>, <td>, <term>, <term-head>, <th>, <title>, <trans-subtitle>, <trans-title>, <underline>, <verse-line>
Example 1
An abbreviation shown with and without alternate
text for pronunciation:
... <article-meta> <article-categories>...</article-categories> <title-group> <article-title>The disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (<abbrev>DASH</abbrev>) outcome questionnaire: longitudinal construct validity and measuring self-rated health change after surgery</article-title> </title-group> <contrib-group>...</contrib-group> ... <permissions> <copyright-statement>©2003 Gummesson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</copyright-statement> <copyright-year>2003</copyright-year> <license license-type="open-access"> <license-p>This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying ...</license-p> </license> </permissions> <abstract> <p><bold>Background:</bold> The disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (<abbrev alt="D.A.S.H.">DASH</abbrev>) questionnaire is a self-administered region-specific outcome instrument developed as a measure of self-rated upper-extremity disability and symptoms. The <abbrev alt="D.A.S.H.">DASH</abbrev> consists mainly of a 30-item disability/symptom scale, scored 0 (no disability) to 100. The main purpose of this study was to assess the <italic>longitudinal construct validity</italic> of the <abbrev alt="D.A.S.H.">DASH</abbrev> among patients undergoing surgery.</p> ...</abstract> </article-meta> ...
Example 2
An emoticon:
...
<p>And I can say without fear of contradiction
<abbrev alt="Wink smile">;)</abbrev> that this
political process is without flaw.</p>
...