<string-name>

Name of Person (Unstructured)

Container element for personal names captured with mixed-content where the order of the name components is not enforced.

Remarks

This is a very loose element, which may contain text, numbers, special characters, generated text, and any or all of the naming elements, such as <surname>.
Best Practice: Although the schemas do not enforce it, for typical western names (for which the surname and given names are both known) the <string-name> element should be used only within a <name-alternatives> wrapper, for use when a name is being provided in more than one language. A <string-name> element should not be used for the primary name whenever the name can be described in the ordinary way.
Related Essay: For a discussion on the use of <string-name>, see Personal Names in Citations.
Usage: If the name parts are unknown or untagged, put the whole name within the <string-name> element, for example, <string-name>Ice Cube</string-name>. Use of the <string-name> element is more likely to lead to better searching in a repository than merely leaving the person’s name untagged.
Since the <string-name> model permits the tagging of name parts within it, a name like “Prince Charles” could be tagged as a given name “Charles” (<given-names>) and prefix “Prince” (<prefix>), but such tagging is likely to be rare and <string-name>Prince Charles</string-name> is also valid tagging.
Examples of when name parts might be usefully tagged inside <string-name> include:
  • A scenario in which “string names” are tagged as part of a preliminary process, and subsequent processes include tagging the specific name parts; or
  • An instance in which reverse order of a name, with the separating comma-space, is to be preserved as a single string, but name parts still need to be tagged for enhanced search capability, i.e., “Abernathy, the Honorable Sir Edward” might be tagged as:
    <string-name><surname>Abernathy</surname>, the Honorable Sir Edward</string-name>
    
    and “Smith, Jane” might be tagged as:
    <string-name><surname>Smith</surname>, <given-names>Jane</given-names></string-name>
    

Attributes

Content Model

<!ELEMENT  string-name  (#PCDATA %string-name-elements;)*            >

Expanded Content Model

(#PCDATA | email | ext-link | uri | inline-supplementary-material | related-article | related-object | hr | bold | fixed-case | italic | monospace | overline | overline-start | overline-end | roman | sans-serif | sc | serif | strike | underline | underline-start | underline-end | ruby | alternatives | inline-graphic | private-char | chem-struct | inline-formula | tex-math | mml:math | abbrev | index-term | index-term-range-end | milestone-end | milestone-start | named-content | styled-content | fn | target | xref | sub | sup | x | degrees | given-names | prefix | surname | suffix)*

Description

Any combination of:

This element may be contained in:

Example 1

Used instead of <name> to place <given-names> before <surname>:
...  
<string-name name-style="western">
<given-names>Y.</given-names>
<surname>Song</surname>
</string-name>
...

Example 2

Used to provide alternative names:
...  
<name-alternatives>
<name name-style="western"><surname>Chu</surname>
<given-names>J. H.</given-names></name>
<string-name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="zh">褚君浩</string-name>
</name-alternatives>
...
...
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">  
<name-alternatives>
<name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Y. P.</given-names></name>
<string-name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="zh">张轶泼</string-name>
</name-alternatives>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="a1">1</xref>
<xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="n1">a)</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name-alternatives>
<name name-style="western"><surname>Isobe</surname>
<given-names>M.</given-names></name>
<string-name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="zh">磯部光孝</string-name>
</name-alternatives>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="a2">2</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name-alternatives>
<name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Yi</given-names></name>
<string-name name-style="eastern" xml:lang="zh">刘仪</string-name>
</name-alternatives>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="a1">1</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
...

Example 3

In an element-style bibliographic reference (punctuation and spacing removed):
    ...
<ref id="B6">
<label>6</label>
<element-citation>
<string-name>
<surname>DerSimonian</surname>, <given-names>R</given-names>
</string-name> 
<string-name>
<surname>Laird</surname>, <given-names>N</given-names>
</string-name>
<article-title>Meta-analysis in clinical trials</article-title>
<source>Controlled Clin Trials</source>
<volume>7</volume>
<year iso-8601-date="1986">1986</year>
<fpage>177</fpage>
<lpage>188</lpage>
<pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">3802833</pub-id>
</element-citation>
</ref>
...   

Example 4

In a mixed-style bibliographic reference (punctuation and spacing preserved):
    ...
<ref id="B6">
<label>6</label>
<mixed-citation>
<string-name><surname>DerSimonian</surname>,
<given-names>R</given-names></string-name>,
<string-name><surname>Laird</surname>,
<given-names>N</given-names></string-name>.
<article-title>Meta-analysis in clinical trials</article-title>.
<source>Controlled Clin Trials</source>:
<volume>7</volume>; <year iso-8601-date="1986">1986</year>;
<fpage>177</fpage>-<lpage>188</lpage> [
<pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">3802833</pub-id>].
</mixed-citation>
</ref>
...