HUGE new beta server update is now available!
1st April 2016
What's new in the April 2016 beta update?
Brand new reference system
- More accurate recognition
- Merops can now 'change its mind' based on results found online
- Reference details can be sequenced in any order, rather than a fixed list
- Merops can now apply the APA style of name lists, using an ellipsis plus the last author, rather than et al.
- Fewer comments, more automated changes
More consistent and accurate
- Merops now matches much more consistently between Standard Sets, so that even when specialist modules are turned off, Merops can still match terms correctly.
- Massively improved handling of non-English documents
- Dutch dictionary added, with over 225,000 words
- More accurate recognition of capitalized words in title case, e.g. to distinguish between 'Golf' the car and 'golf' the sport, using subject detection.
- Abbreviation definition suggestions now use subject and language detection to give more helpful suggestions
- Klingon dictionary added, with over 50,000 words
- Total terms in Merops is now over 3.5 million
Bugs fixed, and more bug resilient
- All 42 regressions found from previous update fixed
- Dozens of new automatic system checks added, and used to fix and standardize over 13,500 errors, inefficiencies, and inconsistencies in Merops code, and permanently prevent them from recurring
- Intra-document linking now works
- Columns split in table now works
Data extraction
Brand new type of process, Merops can now be set up to not analyse a whole document, but instead extract only the metadata you require.
It can extract:
- All front matter data
- Document author names
- References
- Tables
This process is much faster than normal processing or Finish XML - over 1000 words per second.
XML improvements
- Support for JATS 1.1 XML
- Added granularity to tagging address lines
- Added tagging of:
- funding source including sponsor IDs
- quotation sources
- citations to headings
- <mml> attributes preserved
- Table column attributes for:
- column width
- character alignment
Formatting
Much more accurate preservation of emphasis, and authors original formatting where required
New rules
- Remove all font changes unless applied to single character, except monotype fonts, or other occasions where Merops isn't confident
- Remove "emphasis" on punctuation, brackets, bridges, etc.
- Remove invisible "emphasis" on white space, graphics etc.
New Style Names
- Compatible with Merops 3
- More intuitive names
- More unique starts, so names can be reached faster with keyboard shortcuts
- New reference style: 'Location' in a reference, to ensure accurate Finish XML
Other major improvements
Headings
Front/end matter
- Automatically generate keywords from document content
- Generate or add to correspondence info from the rest of document
- Much improved pairing of email addresses with authors
- Improved generation of missing address parts
- Auto apply national/international standard for phone number standardization, with customizable rule for +44 (0)1… vs +441…
New table system
- Standardize horizontal alignment by character, to individual cells based on the content of the column
- Left/right align, justify, or center content in table heads that span other cells
- Delete empty columns
- Resize tables
- Merge cells in table headings
- Auto split rows
Speed
- Server loads up after a reboot in under 5 minutes (3.8× faster)
Full list of all 94 brand new rules
These are available using custom properties, please contact Shabash for help turning on any of these settings
References
- add or remove links to CrossRef
- add or remove links to PubMed
- add/remove IDs from reference list
- capitalization of proceedings title
- capitalization of report title
- capitalization of URL intro
- conference details sequence
- delete duplicate page ranges
- include/remove location on the end of journal names
- 'Issue' heading
- journal page range in parentheses or not
- link style: ISI
- link style: PII
- link style: Scopus
- link style: WorldCat
- formatting: punctuation before article title
- formatting: punctuation before 'In'
- formatting: punctuation before journal name
- formatting: punctuation before journal pages
- formatting: punctuation before volume number
- standardize language of words like 'editors' in references
- remove PII links
- remove WorldCat links
- show editors of whole book in style of authors
- sort numerical citations
- specific sequence for details in book chapter reference
- specific sequence for details in online reference
- URL accessed date in brackets or not
- volume number convert between digits and roman numerals in book reference
- volume number convert between digits and roman numerals in journal reference
Tables
- delete empty columns
- horizontal alignment in body cells, based on content of column
- horizontal alignment in table head cells
- justification of table body cells that span across multiple cells
- justification of table head cells that span across multiple cells
- maximum table width
- merge empty cells in headings
- minimum table width
- replace 'word wrap' paragraph return with line break
- split rows across multiple paragraphs into rows
Miscellaneous
- add missing supplementary material
- delete the word 'number' in addresses, e.g. 'No. 10 Spencer Road'
- alert heading ID jumps
- alert missing copyright statement
- alert missing spaces in general text
- alert repeated figure captions
- alert unofficial taxonomic names
- biography heading
- character styles: turn off abbreviations
- character styles: turn off document objects and their citations
- character styles: turn off heading IDs
- character styles: turn off list IDs
- comment author prefix in XML
- 'data' must be treated as plural (was previously a part of general plural corrections)
- define/don't define TV (television)
- drug abbreviation case
- elision options: shortest (123-5), or 2-digits (123-25)
- enable unheaded book reviews
- geology preference: MIS1 / MIS 1
- ignore supplementary material citations out of sequence
- maximum height for graphics
- maximum width for graphics
- move graphics inside margins
- move II and III after names
- North-East Asia/Northeast Asia/Northeastern Asia
- novelty statement heading
- proper nouns plural style: Thomas's/Thomas'
- punctuation after 'Phone' heading in correspondence info
- punctuation before 'etc.'
- qualifications in name lists - add/remove brackets/parentheses
- remove highlighting
- remove unnecessary formatting from punctuation/spacing
- remove unnecessary formatting from text
- require/delete novelty statement
- retrieve missing front matter content for legacy documents
- sort degrees/footnotes/email address after names in author byline
- sort header even if there is unmatched content
- spelling preference: roentgen/röntgen
- spelling preference: Sharia/Shari'ah/Shariah
- standardize special characters
- standardize title position in name lists
- use plus-minus sign between mean and SD
- unit preference: IU/iu/IUs/ius/I.U./i.u./I.U.s/i.u.s
Full list of 180 new settings for 57 existing rules
These are available using custom properties, please contact Shabash for help turning on any of these settings
- correspondence heading: CONTACT; Contact
- correspondence: name/details sequence: name:¶details; name¶details; name.¶details; name; details
- correspondence: punctuation after heading: point then tab; colon then tab
- correspondence: require address: yes if known
- correspondence: require email: yes if known
- correspondence: require fax number: yes if known
- correspondence: require name: yes if known
- correspondence: require phone number: yes if known
- correspondence: Telephone intro in correspondence info: none
- displayed equation ID style: 1); 1]
- document object citation format: small caps
- document object ID style: 1]; [1]; 1)
- e.g.: for example
- ellipsis brackets/spacing style in quotes: […]; [ … ]; (…); ( … ); …
- ellipsis character style: three points (…)
- equation citation style: EQS.; Eqs.; eqs.
- 'et al.' in citations in parentheses: and others
- 'et al.' in citations: and others
- 'et al.' in running head: and others
- glossary heading bridge: colon then paragraph return
- heading IDs: dynamic
- i.e.: that is
- less than spacing in standalone term (<2): following normal mathematics rule
- medicine: stain style: name, 100x; name, magnification 100x; name, original magnification 100x; name (100x); name (magnification 100x); name (original magnification 100x); name; 100x; name; magnification 100x; name; original magnification 100x; name 100x; name magnification 100x; name original magnification 100x; name stain, 100x; name stain, magnification 100x; name stain, original magnification 100x; name stain (100x); name stain (magnification 100x); name stain (original magnification 100x); name stain; 100x; name stain; magnification 100x; name stain; original magnification 100x; name stain 100x; name stain magnification 100x; name stain original magnification 100x
- 'monoclonal antibody' abbreviation: MAB
- person's role in author byline: required
- present address: name/details sequence: name¶details; name:¶details; name.¶details
- primary language: Dutch
- punctuation between keywords: spaced mid-dot
- punctuation between names and editors in reference: semicolon then space
- reference authors use et al.: use ellipsis plus last name instead
- reference sequence (book): can be any sequence
- reference sequence (journal): can be any sequence
- reference sequence (thesis): can be any sequence
- references: 'accessed on' style: first accessed; last accessed; retrieved; retrieved:; retrieved on; retrieved on:; cited on:; cited on; cited:; cited; first date accessed; last date accessed; date accessed
- references: book volume format: small caps
- references: dash style to represent repeated names: 3 em dashes
- references: 'Edited by' style: ed by; Ed by; edited by; Edited by; ed. by; Ed. by
- references: 'edition' style: [2nd ed]; [2nd Ed]; [2nd Edition]; [2nd edition]; [2nd Edn]; [2nd edn]; 2nd Edn.; 2nd edn.; (2nd Edn.); (2nd edn.); 2nd Ed.; 2nd ed.; (2nd Ed.); (2nd ed.); [Ed 2]; [ed 2]; [Edn 2]; [edn 2]; edn. 2; Edn. 2; (Edn. 2); (edn 2); ed. 2; Ed. 2; (Ed. 2); (ed. 2); French; [Second Edition]; [second edition]; Second Edn.; second edn.; Second Edn.; second edn.; (Second Edn.); (second edn.); Second Ed.; second ed.; Second Ed.; second ed.; (Second Ed.); (second ed.);
- references: 'et al.' in editor list: and others
- references: numeric citation style: spaced superscript
- references: PubMed link style: PubMed:ID; Pubmed:ID; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/; ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/; PubMed:ID; PMID:ID
- references:'et al.' in author list: and others
- require date in front matter: yes
- 'Senior' contraction: Sen
- Southeast Asia: Southeastern Asia
- spacing after displayed list ID: em space; en space
- spelling preferences: brussels sprout
- spelling preferences: cabbalah; Cabbalah; Kabala; kabala; qabala; Qabala
- spelling preferences: dahl; dholl
- spelling preferences: Dewali
- spelling preferences: gubbah
- spelling preferences: kebob; kabob
- spelling preferences: NA
- spelling preferences: peekaboo
- tag style for affiliations: none; [affiliation]; <affiliation>
- tag style for authors: none;
- tag style for title: none