XML: Using an Evolving Standard in Electronic Publishing

XML is the proposed electronic publishing and data interchange format of the future. Currently XML is immature with little tool support, particularly for end-user World Wide Web browser display. At present many journal publishers typeset their articles, or at least their article metadata, in SGML which is converted to HTML for end-user display. The SGML article metadata is used for electronic data interchange for supply to external aggregating and abstracting agencies. This paper discusses the change to the electronic journal publishing production process implied by an adoption of the World Wide Web standard format of XML, the problems associated with using and displaying XML now, and the future benefits of adopting a standard interchange format. Real work experience gained by working with journal publishers in actual electronic publishing scenarios is used as illustration.