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<abbrev> Abbreviation or Acronym

Abbreviation, acronym, or emoticon used in the text of a document, possibly including an expansion of the acronym.

Usage/Remarks

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” may 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"”).
Related Elements
The <def> may be used within an <abbrev> to contain, for example, the expansion of the acronym, for example, with “NIH” as the acronym and “National Institutes of Health” as the expansion.
Attributes
alt
content-type
hreflang
specific-use

Base Attributes

id
xml:base
xml:lang

Linking Attributes

xlink:actuate
xlink:href
xlink:role
xlink:show
xlink:title
xlink:type

Namespaces

xmlns:xlink
Models and Context
May be contained in
<addr-line>, <alt-title>, <article-title>, <attrib>, <award-id>, <bold>, <chapter-title>, <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>, <part-title>, <preformat>, <product>, <roman>, <sans-serif>, <sc>, <see>, <see-also>, <source>, <strike>, <styled-content>, <sub>, <subtitle>, <sup>, <supplement>, <support-source>, <td>, <term>, <term-head>, <th>, <title>, <trans-source>, <trans-subtitle>, <trans-title>, <underline>, <verse-line>
Description
Any combination of:
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  abbrev       (#PCDATA %abbrev-elements;)*                 >
Expanded Content Model

(#PCDATA | def)*

Tagged Samples
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>&copy;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>
...
Emoticon 
...
<p>And I can say without fear of contradiction
 <abbrev alt="Wink smile">;)</abbrev> that this
 political process is without flaw.</p>
...
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