XML, which is eXtensible Markup Language, is a serialization language used in storing and transporting data. The language is independent of hardware and software. Hence, it performs on its own. A host of functions are conducted using XML including validating, editing, proofing, and typesetting. These functions are presented in an environment that supports validation and editing during conversion. XML is also a self-descriptive language that defines its structure through the use of tags and is mostly used in Java programming.
Content in XML is represented through an XML workflow. The workflow has two main approaches, XML-in and XML-out. XML files in XML-in are created during the early stages of production, whereby a document is prepared for conversion before the design process (O'Connor, Haenel, Gnanapiragasam, Hepp & Fleischer, 2015). On the other hand, files in XML-out are created through a back-conversion process that includes writing, editing, proofing and typesetting (O'Connor et al., 2015). In this approach, XML is generated during the design process.
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XML has many benefits that make it sufficient for this project. First and foremost, XML is used in academic publishing because of the predictable structure that makes it relevant to text-based content (McGlone, 2013). The structure is also simple thus making it easy to use by both humans and machines. Academic publishing is dominated by textual content; thus XML is the most efficient language to use.
Moreover, XML is time-saving because of the ease of validation (McGlone, 2013). XML contents are easily validated to ensure that the structure and order are maintained during conversion into other formats. Additionally, XML provides proper encoding which allows for the maintenance of consistency when used on several XML documents (McGlone, 2013). The consistency makes it easier to use in this project as it is reliable when used in multiple XML documents.
Additionally, the simple and predictable structure allows for the automation of processes during conversion (McGlone, 2013). Conversion using XML enables the documents to maintain the applied characters and styles. Furthermore, the structure also facilitates the re-use of metadata that are used in electronic XML submissions during conversion.
XML boasts of an open file format that presents various benefits to academic publishing. The open nature facilitates reading and sharing of data even without the presence of hardware, software, operating system or a platform (McGlone, 2013). The free file format also contributes to the reduction of data loss during sharing of XML content (McGlone, 2013). This feature allows a user to access XML documents in the future that have all the relevant data intact. However, such access is dependent on the availability of programs that can either read or write Unicode text (McGlone, 2013).
XML can separate design and content elements to improve the accessibility of content despite the evolution of devices used to read XML documents (McGlone, 2013). As such, XML is repurposed to the syntax of new formats. Repurposing is enabled by XSL transformations (XSLT) among other programming languages (McGlone, 2013). Repurposed documents are encoded in XML and converted to other formats such as InDesign, PDF, HTML and EPUB among others.
There exist other alternatives to XML, among them being JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). JSON is a serialization language that is commonly used with JavaScript. JSON is preferred in data interchange over XML due its interoperability and openness. XML is bulky and does not match the data models of most programming languages, hence making it unsuitable for data interchange.
JSON and XML compare in some ways. Both languages boast of openness seeing as it is easy to transfer information from XML to JSON and vice versa (JSON, 2018). Moreover, the two also have the same interoperability, which makes both of them more accessible to work with, as well as easy to transfer information between the two. The interoperability makes both of them applicable to exchange formats when transferring data between similar applications (JSON, 2018).
Both languages are both self-descriptive and rich in information making them efficient in academic publishing. They are also easily read by both humans and machines, despite JSON being easier than XML (JSON, 2018). Their use of a Unicode allows the internationalization of both languages (JSON, 2018) thus making them efficient in the field of academic publishing.
Despite the similarities, the two languages contrast in various ways. While XML is document-oriented, JSON is data-oriented (JSON, 2018). Therefore, XML stores multimedia data including images and sounds, whereas JSON cannot display multimedia data. XML also has multiple views of data, allowing it to display multimedia data. JSON lacks the capabilities of multiple views because it is not a data markup language (JSON, 2018).
More so, XML has a simple standard data structure and a document exchange format. JSON, on its part, has a much simpler structure as compared to XML and a data exchange format. The simplified structure allows it to be efficiently processed (JSON, 2018).
In conclusion, XML is a serialization language that is relevant and applicable to academic publishing due to its salient features. It is self-descriptive and enjoys an open-file format that enhances data processing and sharing. An alternative to XML is JSON which boasts of some similarities to XML. However, several differences contrast the two languages.
References
JSON. (2018). JSON: The Fat-Free Alternative to XML. Retrieved from https://www.json.org/xml.html
McGlone, J. (2013). Preserving and Publishing Digital Content Using XML Workflows. Retrieved from https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99563/LibraryPublishingToolkit-McGlone-XMLWorkflows.pdf?sequence=1
O'Connor, C., Haenel, S., Gnanapiragasam, A., Hepp, M., & Fleischer, T. (2015). Building an Automated XML-Based Journal Production Workflow. Journal Article Tag Suite Conference (JATS-Con) Proceedings 2015 .
