<subject> Subject Name

Name of one overarching category, broad classification, topic, or theme used to describe a standards document, as a higher-level descriptor of its content.

Usage/Remarks

In JATS (the specification on which NISO STS was based), subjects are used to organize articles in a Table of Contents or similar. In standards documents, subjects have been used to organize standards into series or provide category classing. The source of the subjects can be a classification scheme, such as a taxonomy (ISO STD 25964:-1:ed-1:2011 https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:25964:-1:ed-1:v1:en:term:2.6).
Language in Subjects
Subject elements are contained in <subj-group> elements. There may be several <subj-group>s, each of which can be identified separately by language, vocabulary, or taxonomy source. None of the individual subject elements (<subject> and <compound-subject>) take the @xml:lang attribute; that is reserved for the group level (<subj-group>). This means that if there are keywords in several languages they should be in different <kwd-group>s.
Vocabulary Attributes
For controlled vocabularies, two attributes can be used to link a subject term to its source:
  • @vocab-term — This attribute holds the canonical form of the subject term as expressed in the vocabulary named on the <subj-group> element. The content of the subject element (<subject> or <compound-subject>) might not be exactly the same as the canonical form, as the <subject> content might be a user-specific variant.
  • @vocab-term-identifier — This attribute holds a unique identifier and possible pointer to the specific subject term in the named vocabulary. While this is typically a URI or DOI reference, the @vocab-term-identifier could be an item number or other system-specific identifier.
Related Elements
Types of Subjects: This Tag Set contains several differently-structured types of subject elements:
  • <subject> is used with simple subjects: words or phrases.
  • <compound-subject> is used with multi-part subjects, such as a subjects that contains both a code and its description/name/title.
  • <ics>Used to hold ICS terms, which are a special kind of subjects that are not tagged as <subject>s, but rather use their own specific elements (<ics-wrap>, <ics>, and <ics-desc>).
Keywords vs Subjects Terms: Subject terms (collected within a <subj-group> element) name broad classifications, categories, topics, or themes that describe or classify a standard. Keywords (collected within a <kwd-group> element) contain words from the narrative text or words (such as broader and narrower terms) related to that text.
Attributes

Base Attributes

Models and Context
May be contained in
Description
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  subject      (#PCDATA %subject-elements;)*                >
Expanded Content Model

(#PCDATA | bold | fixed-case | italic | monospace | num | overline | roman | sans-serif | sc | strike | underline | ruby | alternatives | inline-graphic | private-char | chem-struct | inline-formula | named-content | styled-content | sub | sup)*

Tagged Samples
Subjects from SDO-specific taxonomy showing vocabulary attributes
...
<subj-group id="SG1.1" originator="ASME" vocab="ASME-Taxonomy"
  xml:lang="en" subj-group-type="Industries"
  vocab-identifier="http:/www.asme.org/ASME-Taxonomy/Industries/">
 <subject id="SG1.1-1"
   vocab-term-identifier="http:/www.asme.org/ASME-Taxonomy/Industries/fossil-power"
  >Fossil Power</subject>
 <subject id="SG1.1-2"
   vocab-term-identifier="http:/www.asme.org/ASME-Taxonomy/Industries/power-plants"
  >Power Plants</subject>
</subj-group>

<subj-group id="SG1.2" originator="ASME" vocab="ASME-Taxonomy"
  xml:lang="en" subj-group-type="Materials-Product-Form"
  vocab-identifier="http:/www.asme.org/ASME-Taxonomy/Materials-Product-Form/">
 <subject id="SG1.2-1"
   vocab-term-identifier="http:/www.asme.org/ASME-Taxonomy/Materials-Product-Form/piping"
  >Piping</subject>
 <subject id="SG1.2-2"
   vocab-term-identifier="http:/www.asme.org/ASME-Taxonomy/Materials-Product-Form/pressure-vessels"
  >Pressure Vessels</subject>
</subj-group>
...
Subject from Dewey Decimal showing canonical term in @vocab-term attribute and its translation in subject content (Note “Engineering of railroads, roads” is DDC term, not free text.)
...
<subj-group id="DDC-ex1" vocab="DDC" vocab-identifier="DDC23" xml:lang="en">
 <subject id="DCC-625" vocab-term="Engineering of railroads, roads"
   vocab-term-identifier="http://www.oclc.org/en/dewey/features/summaries.html#thou">
  Ingénierie des chemins de fer, routes</subject>  
</subj-group>
...