News

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

• Dynamic heading numbers

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