Re: Query from APA WG on longdesc usage

I can report that the XML model that is pretty much universally used in
scholarly publishing--JATS for journals and its counterpart BITS for
books--contains longdesc in the form <long-desc>, as well as the element
<alt-text>.  In my modeling work I always encourage the use of both, with
<alt-text> being used for the content of the required @alt attribute on
<img> in HTML and the content of <long-desc> for what would currently be
referred to as an extended description. What I can't report is how much
they are actually used in practice; I hope some of the publishers or
service providers in the PBG or PBGSC can comment on that.

The best way to find out how commonly those are used would probably be to
check with the major scholarly journal hosts--Atypon (now owned by Wiley
and thus a W3C member), HighWire Press, Silverchair, and Ingenta. The four
of those host the vast majority of scholarly journal content. Atypon has
the biggest proportion of those four so I would suggest checking with Marty
Picco of Atypon as a start (mpicco@atypon.com).

<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon>
Virus-free.
www.avast.com
<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=link>
<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 2:26 PM Ralph Swick <swick@w3.org> wrote:

> In what Publishing forum is Janina Sajka's query about current usage of
> longdesc in Publishing best addressed?
>
> On 2019-08-12 12:21 PM, Janina Sajka wrote:
> > Hi, Judy:
> >
> > APA has become aware that there is a proposal afoot to obsolete
> > longdesc. We would likely not oppose that unless there is still use of
> > longdesc, perhaps in legacy education publications still actively in
> > distribution.
> >
> > If there is still such use, or if Details/Summary and/or Annotations use
> > isn't sufficiently mature to completely replace longdesc, we need to
> > know that from our Publishing people.
> >
> > It seemed this would be a useful agendum for our upcoming CC call.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Janina
> >
>
>

-- 
*Bill Kasdorf*
*Principal, Kasdorf & Associates, LLC*

*Founding Partner, Publishing Technology Partners
<https://pubtechpartners.com/>*
kasdorf.bill@gmail.com
+1 734-904-6252

ISNI: http://isni.org/isni/0000000116490786
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786
<https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786?lang=en>