BITS 2.0 and JATS 1.1 Changes

This 2.0 version of the BITS Tag Set incorporates the 1.1 version of the JATS Archiving and Interchange Tag Set (ANSI/NISO Z39.96-2015. The changes to JATS are documented in NISO JATS Standing Committee Recommended Changes Between NISO/JATS 1.0 and NISO/JATS 1.1 (in Response to Comments to on NISO Z39.96-2012 and JATS Standing Committee Drafts 1.1d1, 1.1d2, and 1.1d3 from September 2013 through November 2015), available from NISO.

Non-backward Compatible Changes

BITS went to a new version number with 2.0 because not all the changes to BITS were backward compatible. There were changes to Ruby Markup (inherited from JATS); changes to questions and answsers based on user feedback about the inadequacies of the original BITS models; and changes to Index and Table of Contents structures to make future modifications less disruptive.

Changes to Questions and Answers

Based on user experience using the Question and Answers model in BITS Version 1.0, the Question and Answer model has been significantly modified. Among the changes:
  • The usage of the element <answer> has been limited to contain only correct answers to questions; it should not be used for the possible answers to multiple-choice style questions.
  • The element <option> has been created for the options provided for multiple-choice style questions.
  • The <explanation> element is now allowed to appear separately from either questions or answers, since many users fill entire sections with <explanation>s.
  • The usage of the pointing attributes (of type ID and IDREF) in associating questions, answers, and explanations has been redesigned. The @rid on <question> has been removed. The @rid on <answer> has been replaced with @pointer-to-question. The @rid on <explanation> has been replaced with @pointer-to-explained. It is intended that each <answer> will point to its question(s). Each <explanation> will point to the object(s) it is explaining. Therefore best practice will be to provide an @id attribute on questions, answers, and question-wraps. Other cross-references associated with a question, answer, or explanation should be part of the text and referenced with an <xref> or <ext-link> element.
  • Question Preamble (<question-preamble>) has been created to hold material that is referenced by two or more questions. This is often used when a reading, figure, or map is displayed once and several questions refer to this shared material.
  • Question Wrapper Group (<question-wrap-group>) has been provided to contain material that is germain to several questions (tagged as <question-preamble>) as well as the questions with which that material is associated (which will be tagged as <question-wrap> elements).

Changes to Index and Table of Contents

Two new elements (<index-title-group> and <toc-title-group>) were created to contain the various title-related structures (label, titles, subtitles, etc.) inside the Index and Table of Contents.
In the previous BITS version, models for the structural index (<index>, <index-div>, and <index-group>) contained the element <title-group> as a direct child. Since the element <title-group> is also used inside book-part metadata and collection metadata, this tied the models for Index to book parts and collections in a way that would not allow these structures to evolve independently. The new <index-title-group> element will preform the same function thaT <title-group> performed, but will also allow a clean separation between Indexes and other parts of books.
Similarly, in the previous BITS version, models for the structural Table of Contents (<toc>, <toc-div>, and <toc-group>) contained the element <title-group> as a direct child. Since the element <title-group> is also used inside book-part metadata and collection metadata, this tied the models for TAble of Contents to book parts and collections in a way that would not allow these structures to evolve independently. The new <toc-title-group> element will preform the same function thaT <title-group> performed, but will also allow a clean separation between Indexes and other parts of books.

Changes to XHTML Ruby Tagging

The model for the Ruby element (<ruby>) changed between versions 1.1d1 and 1.1d3 of JATS. The intent of the JATS Standing Committee was to follow the lead of the W3C HTML5 specification in how to model Ruby. HTML5 changed between the two drafts of JATS, and the JATS Standing Committee chose to follow the new HTML5 model, even though it was not the same and not backwards compatible with JATS Version 1.1d1. Thus in JATS 1.1,the Ruby model <ruby>, may contain only a single Ruby textual annotation (<rt>) on a given Ruby base (<rb>). The previous model allowed multiple annotations to cover a single Ruby base.
In this Tag Set, ruby parenthesis (<rp>) can be used to separate the Ruby base from the textual annotation.