File Validation Tools

For content submitted in the NLM Journal Publishing Tag Set, PMC has compiled a set of tagging requirements. The resources and tools listed below assist in generating XML according to this style. Compliance with PMC style is preferred and facilitates a more efficient workflow through PMC.

• Tagging Guidelines

  Detailed instructions for tagging journal articles in XML beyond simply validating against the NLM DTD. This resource should be used when marking up content for PubMed Central. (Updates to the Tagging Guidelines are announced through a publicly available email distribution list).

• Style Checker

  The Online PMC Style Checker is an interactive tool which provides a detailed report of all items in an article tagged using the Journal Publishing DTD, that do not comply with PMC's Tagging Guidelines. The report will list items as either warnings or errors. Errors are required fixes and warnings are suggested fixes.

  The downloadable NLM Style Checker is a set of XSL stylesheets that check PMC, Bookshelf, or NIHMS style compliance.

• Article Previewer

  The PMC Article Previewer is a great way to preview your articles to see how they will appear in PMC. The Previewer will also test whether your XML tagging generates warnings or errors. It runs many of the same processes that are used in the PMC production workflow.

• Math Previewer

  Use this tool to create a GIF or PNG rendering of MathML or LaTeX code.

• XML Validator

  Use this tool to validate XML files against a DTD. The DTD must be identified with a properly formed DOCTYPE declaration.

• SGML Validator

  Use this tool to validate SGML files that will be submitted to PMC. The DTD must be identified with a properly formed DOCTYPE declaration, and the DTD must have previously been submitted to PMC.