[Provisional description for MEDLINE XML and associated XML data formats.]

From a 1999-09 Bulletin: "As part of its reinvention efforts, NLM continues to refine the format that will be used for our forthcoming data creation and maintenance system and for distribution of MEDLINE data. This new XML-based format will be used when NLM offers its leased data via ftp. The new format will be a greatly expanded and somewhat modified version of the SGML-based format currently used by publishers who submit citation and abstract data electronically to NLM for entry to see PubMed. We plan to offer the XML format via ftp in parallel with continued distribution of the data in ELHILL Unit Record Format (EURF) on tape until all licensees have had sufficient time to transition over to the new format."

[July 29, 2000] Documentation on XML DTDs: Sample NLM Data Available: MEDLINE. Sample MEDLINE data in NLM's new XML format (May 9, 2000 version) is available for ftp. Instructions are below. Please see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/licensee.html for more information on NLM's XML format. The NLM MEDLINE DTD is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/dtd/nlmmedline.dtd. This new DTD defines the entities and references the MedlineCitation DTD (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/dtd/nlmmedlinecitation.dtd) which in turn references the NLMCommon DTD (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/dtd/nlmcommon.dtd). The MEDLINE DTD, therefore, is the "parent" DTD and the starting point for MEDLINE licensees. There are two groups of sample records available as compressed and also uncompressed files. One (file name sampmed1) contains close to 41,000 MEDLINE records and the other (file name is sampmed2) contains a small sampling of 21 representative records. Information for Licensees of NLM Data can be found at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/licensee.html. Cache version 2000-07-29 below.

[May 30, 2003]   NLM Releases XML Tagset and DTDs for Journal Publishing, Archiving, and Interchange.    An announcement from the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) describes the release of a Tagset and two XML DTDs designed to "simplify journal publishing and increase the accuracy of the archiving and exchange of scholarly journal articles. The Journal Publishing DTD and the Archiving and Interchange DTD have been created from the Archiving and Interchange Tagset, a set of XML elements and attributes that can be used to define many other types of documents, including textbooks and online documentation. The Tagset provides a set of XML modules that defines elements and attributes for describing the textual and graphical content of journal articles as well as some nonarticle material such as letters, editorials, and book reviews. The purpose of the Tagset is to preserve the intellectual content of journals independently of the form in which that content was originally created. The Tagset has been written as a set of XML DTD modules, each of which is a separate file. No module is a complete DTD by itself, but these modules can be combined to create any number of new DTDs." The NLM Tagset represents an open specification: the DTDs and the Tagset are in the public domain so that any organization wishing to create its own DTD from the Tagset may do so without permission from NLM. NLM is forming an XML Interchange Structure Advisory Board to assist in development and maintenance of the Tagset. An Archiving and Interchange Tagset Secretariat will collect feedback and will physically maintain the files and documentation.

References:

• New Data Format and Distribution Media for Licensees of NLM Data

• Sample XML DTDs and records

• NLM DTDs - Current 2000-07-29

• - Medline NLM

• Sample MEDLINE records in new XML format

• The current version of the NLM MEDLINE DTD

• The current version of the NLMCommon DTD

• Conversion Tables. ELHILL MEDLINE Unit Record --> XML Format

• NLM Standard Publisher Data Format - SGML

• PubMed SGML DTD ['NCBI PubMed DTD Version 1.5, September 29, 1997']

• See also: National Library of Medicine (NLM) - SGML Applications