Align Original and Translated Article Titles

Keep each title with its language and source

An article can carry an original title, a translated title supplied by the publisher, and a database translation. Create one row per title variant with the work key, language when known, title role, and source. Preserve original scripts and diacritics. Use a separate normalized comparison field for searching, leaving the display text intact.

Older JATS documents may express translated titles through trans-title-group. JATS 1.4 marks this element deprecated. Its replacement uses repeated title-group elements with xml:lang specifying the language. Check both forms in an archive covering several production years. A translated title attached to one article can look like a separate publication when exported into a flat list.

Test a hypothetical match

A review has ten bilingual records. Each contains two titles, yielding 20 title strings but ten known works. A second database retrieves eight English titles and two original-language titles for those same works. A join restricted to the English title would miss two of ten matches. Search by identifiers and bibliographic context before deciding that the two unmatched strings represent additional studies.

Compare journal, authors, year, and locator for any candidate that lacks a shared identifier. Retain a distinct record for a separately published translation when the sources establish a separate publication. The metadata should show both the language relationship and the evidence behind the work-level grouping.

JATS translated title group reference

Related worksheet: Study-to-report linkage worksheet.

Source checked on 5 November 2026.