How to Validate a JATS Article Before Submitting to SciELO

Submitting a batch of articles to SciELO without prior validation is one of the most frequent causes of rejection and delays in indexing. The SciELO Publishing Schema (SPS) imposes strict rules on XML structure, mandatory metadata, and bibliographic reference format. A single error in one article can block acceptance of the entire package if the repository's quality control process detects it.

This guide describes a practical validation workflow that any editorial team can implement before final delivery, reducing costly iterations with your collection's SciELO coordinator.

Why Validate Before and Not After?

SciELO operates with national collections coordinated by academic institutions. When a journal submits its XML, a review team verifies SPS compliance, metadata completeness, and consistency with the collection's editorial policy. Errors detected at this stage generate:

• Returns with correction lists that delay publication in SciELO.
• Additional workload for teams already operating with limited resources.
• Reputational risk with authors expecting visibility in the SciELO index.

Proactive validation reverses this dynamic: errors are corrected in the journal's controlled environment, not under indexing deadline pressure.

Step 1: Confirm the Correct JATS Profile

SciELO SPS is based on JATS Archiving with its own extensions and restrictions. Before validating, verify that your files declare the correct namespace and version, and that article-type corresponds to the article typology (research-article, review-article, case-report, etc.).

<article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
         xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"
         article-type="research-article"
         dtd-version="1.3"
         specific-use="sps-1.9">

An incorrect or missing article-type is one of the most common and easily preventable errors.

Step 2: Validate Against the Base JATS Schema

The first validation layer is structural: Is the XML well-formed and does it comply with the JATS schema? Errors such as unclosed tags, unknown attributes, or elements in disallowed positions fail at this stage.

Use the EditorialXML JATS validator to obtain a detailed error report with line and element references. The validator applies JATS Archiving rules and flags problems that would subsequently cause SPS failures.

Step 3: Validate SciELO SPS-Specific Rules

Beyond the JATS schema, SPS defines business rules that an XML schema validator does not automatically detect:

Review the current SPS documentation for your version (currently evolving toward SPS 1.9+) and check each article against your national coordinator's checklist.

Step 4: Review Critical Article Metadata

The fields that most frequently generate rejections are:

DOI and dates. The <article-id pub-id-type="doi"> must contain a valid, registered DOI. Submission, acceptance, and publication dates (<history>) must be coherent and in ISO format.

Affiliations. Each author must link to at least one affiliation via the ref attribute in <xref ref-type="aff">. Duplicate or generic affiliations ("University X" without country or complete institution) are grounds for observation.

Structured abstract. If the journal requires abstract sections (objective, methods, results, conclusions), each section must be tagged with <sec> within <abstract>.

Keywords. Minimum and maximum per journal policy; SPS typically requires between 3 and 5, with language attribute.

Step 5: Audit Bibliographic References

Malformed references represent approximately 40% of errors in batches rejected by SciELO. Verify:

• Each <ref> has a unique id in the document.
• Journal citations include <source>, <volume>, <issue>, and <fpage> when applicable.
• DOIs in references use the correct format in <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">.
• Web references include access date.

<ref id="B1">
  <element-citation publication-type="journal">
    <person-group person-group-type="author">
      <name><surname>Martínez</surname><given-names>Ana</given-names></name>
    </person-group>
    <article-title>Title of cited article</article-title>
    <source>SciELO Brasil</source>
    <year>2023</year>
    <volume>45</volume>
    <issue>2</issue>
    <fpage>100</fpage>
    <lpage>110</lpage>
    <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1590/example.2023</pub-id>
  </element-citation>
</ref>

Step 6: Validate Links and Multimedia Resources

All figures (<fig>) and tables (<table-wrap>) must:

• Have a unique id attribute.
• Reference image files with <graphic xlink:href="..."> using valid relative paths.
• Include <label> and <caption> with descriptive title.

Verify that referenced files exist in the delivery package and that formats (TIFF, PNG, JPG) meet SciELO resolution specifications.

Step 7: Run Batch Validation

For complete issues or volumes, do not validate articles one by one manually. Establish a pipeline:

1. Automatic validation of all XML with the JATS validator.
2. Export error report to CSV or JSON.
3. Assign corrections by error type to the production team.
4. Revalidate after corrections until zero critical errors are achieved.

This workflow reduces preparation time for a complete issue from weeks to days.

Errors That Seem Minor but Block Indexing

• Non-UTF-8 characters in author names with accents or umlauts incorrectly encoded.
• Duplicate IDs across figures, tables, and references.
• Broken xlink links to supplementary material.
• Missing license or incorrect Creative Commons URI.
• Unrecognized contrib-type for corresponding authors and section editors.

When to Delegate SciELO Preparation

If your journal publishes more than four issues per year, lacks technical staff with XML experience, or has received recurring returns, outsourcing preparation may be more efficient than training a team from scratch.

EditorialXML's SciELO preparation service includes SPS conversion, complete validation, image packaging, and delivery ready for your collection coordinator.

Final Checklist Before Submission

• XML validated against JATS Archiving without errors
• SPS rules verified (current version)
• DOI registered and present in each article
• Authors with complete affiliations and ORCID
• References in structured format without duplicate IDs
• Figures and tables with files present in package
• Open access license correctly declared
• Revalidation after last round of corrections

Conclusion

Validating JATS articles before submitting to SciELO is not bureaucracy: it is the difference between smooth indexing and months of iterative corrections. With accessible tools like the JATS validator and a systematic review workflow, any journal can achieve SPS compliance without depending exclusively on external consulting.

For large batches or journals without internal capacity, consider the SciELO preparation service as an extension of your editorial team.