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Trends & Essentials in Scholarly Publishing
at PubMed Central, Portico, and HighWire Press, as well as the Library of Congress and British
Library (Beck, 2011).
As Michigan Publishing evolves away from publishing digital content using DLXS and the
Text Class/TEI DTD, JATS will become our future journals DTD. As a replacement to DLXS,
Michigan Publishing is currently developing web-based tools to allow publishers to easily
transform content from Microsoft Word to JATS XML and later deposit and publish this content
in HathiTrust (h瑴p://www.lib.umich.edu/mpach).
Scribe Markup Language (ScML)
Unlike the other DTDs described above, Scribe Markup Language (ScML) is a proprietary
XML format designed for moving documents from a digital to print environment. Specifically
developed for the publishing industry, subscribing publishers/institutions have access to the
ScML documentation and dictionary along with Scribe’s document workflow tools. Scribe’s
pre-developed set of workflow and conversion tools are extremely useful for publishers looking
to begin or transition into an XML workflow. More recently, Scribe has begun developing tools
to convert content to e-book formats such as EPUB2.
Because it is designed specifically for publishers, the ScML DTD includes additional
elements that indicate elements important to typese瑴ers and the typese瑴ing process, such as
first paragraphs, paragraphs after heads, or those that continue onto pages (Scribe, 2013). Using
a set of proprietary macros and plugins for Microsoft Word, styles are applied to the Word
document manuscript to give the document structure (headings, first paragraph, etc.), which
a programmed script interprets to transform the document to the corresponding ScML XML.
Michigan Publishing has adopted ScML and its workflow tools for its print projects under
the University of Michigan Press imprint. In addition, adoption of this workflow has allowed
Michigan Publishing to develop and offer “rapid typese瑴ing” services for journal publishing
partners—producing typeset PDFs for additional fees. Increasingly, with the addition of tools
that assist in the conversion to EPUB2 and mobi, ScML will likely become a “pivot” format to
produce a version for multiple platforms that also converts to JATS XML or DLXS Text Class/
TEI as a preservation format.
Engineering an XML Workflow
There are two main approaches to XML workflows for digital publishing: XML-In and
XML-Out. XML-In workflows involve the creation of the XML files at an early stage in the
production process, such as authoring in XML (highly unlikely), having a copy editor prepare
a word document for XML conversion, or prior to the design and typese瑴ing process (Bullock,
2012). XML-Out workflows maintain a standard production processes—writing, editing,
proofing, and typese瑴ing—and XML is created in a back-conversion process (Strange, 2003, p.
158). Depending on the individual project or your relationship with the content provider, you
may use one or the other.
Library Publishing Toolkit, ed. Allison P. Brown.
Geneseo: IDS Project Press, 2013.
http://opensuny.org/omp/index.php/IDSProject/catalog/book/25
