A proposal for the inclusion of accessibility criteria in the authoring workflo w of images for scientific articles Bruno Splendiani A quest a tesi doctoral està subjecta a la llicència Reconeixement - NoComercial – SenseObraDerivada 3.0. Espanya de Creative Commons . Esta tesis doctoral está sujeta a la licencia Reconocimiento - NoComercial – SinObraDerivada 3.0. España de Creative Commons . Th is doctoral thesis is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 3.0. Spain License . A proposal for the inclusion of accessibility criteria in the authoring workflow of images for scientific articles Bruno Splendiani Library and Information Science Department Faculty of Library and Information Science Doctoral program in Information and Documentation in the Knowledge Society (Información y Documentación en la Sociedad del Conocimiento) A proposal for the inclusion of accessibility criteria in the authoring workflow of images for scientific articles PhD Candidate Bruno Splendiani PhD Supervisors Mireia Ribera Turró, PhD Roberto García González PhD Barcelona, Spain 2015 Acknowledgments To my supervisor Mireia Ribera, who taught me what hard work really means. To my supervisor Roberto García, for his recommendations and support. To my friends and PhD students of the Library and Information Science faculty – Anita Locher, Marta Platero, Miguel Navas and Tahere Dehdarirad - for sharing with me all the moments of enthusiasm and discouragement on the long and winding road to a PhD. To all staff of the Adaptabit Group and the department of Library and Information Science, for supporting me in all aspects, moral, scientific and administrative. Special thanks go to Marina Salse, Miquel Térmens, Miquel Centelles, Inma Rodríguez, Constança Espelt, Ernest Abadal, Mario Pérez-Montoro and Alberto Martinez. To Josep Marco, for his technical advises about medical imaging. To Lluis Jover, for his valuable recommendations about academic publishing. To David Fuster and the staff of the Centro de Diagnóstico por la Imagen Clínic (CDIC) in Barcelona, for helping me in exploring the practices of academic researchers in medical imaging. To the staff of the GRIHO group, for receiving me during my research internship in Lleida. To Simon Harper, Caroline Jay, Giorgio Brajnik and all the staff of the Web Ergonomics Lab of the University of Manchester, for their willingness, kindness and consideration of my work. To my mother Adriana and to my father Giuseppe, I know he would be proud of me if he were here. To my wife Titika, the “gasoline” of my life, for her admirable patience, ceaseless support and unconditional love. Thank you mami. To my beloved son Oreste, a true masterpiece. “Littera gesta docet, Quod credas allegoria, Moralia quod agas, Quo tendas anagogia” Augustine of Dacia Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... 4 Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Summary of the thesis in Spanish ............................................................................................... 11 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 13 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 16 1.1 The accessibility of scientific images ........................................................................... 16 1.2 Justification ................................................................................................................. 17 1.3 Accessibility in the publishing process ........................................................................ 20 1.4 Publishing workflow of images in academic articles ................................................... 24 1.5 Purpose of the thesis ................................................................................................... 32 1.6 Thesis outline .............................................................................................................. 33 2 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 35 2.1 Literature review ......................................................................................................... 35 2.2 Audit of policies and practices in STEM articles publishing ........................................ 36 2.2.1 Sources of information ........................................................................................ 37 2.2.2 Requirements about figures ................................................................................ 38 2.2.3 Limitations of the study....................................................................................... 39 2.2.4 Analysis of the journals ....................................................................................... 40 2.2.5 Analysis of the articles ......................................................................................... 40 2.3 Analysis of authors’ practices and attitudes ............................................................... 43 2.3.1 Online survey ....................................................................................................... 44 2.3.2 Interviews ............................................................................................................ 47 2.4 Summary of the research methods ............................................................................. 55 3 Definitions and background ................................................................................................ 58 3.1 Premise: definition of terms ....................................................................................... 58 3.1.1 Graphics ............................................................................................................... 58 3.1.2 STEM graphics ..................................................................................................... 59 3.2 Characteristics of digital images in academic publications ......................................... 62 3.2.1 Raster vs vector graphics ..................................................................................... 62 3.2.2 Encapsulating formats ......................................................................................... 65 6 3.3 Image file formats commonly used in academic publishing ....................................... 65 3.3.1 Raster image formats used in academic publishing ............................................ 66 3.3.2 Metafile formats used in academic publishing ................................................... 67 3.3.3 Vector formats used in academic publishing ...................................................... 68 3.3.4 Image formats relevant from an accessibility standpoint ................................... 68 3.3.5 Image format specifically used in biomedical workflow ..................................... 68 3.4 Document formats including images in STEM academic publishing ........................... 69 3.4.1 HiperText Markup Language (HTML) .................................................................. 69 3.4.2 Portable Document Format (PDF) ....................................................................... 70 3.4.3 DAISY Digital Talking Book ................................................................................... 71 3.4.4 EPUB .................................................................................................................... 73 3.4.5 XML ...................................................................................................................... 73 3.4.6 MathML ............................................................................................................... 74 3.5 Image-related texts in academic publishing ............................................................... 74 3.5.1 Caption ................................................................................................................ 75 3.5.2 Mentions ............................................................................................................. 80 3.5.3 Text labels and text inside the image .................................................................. 80 3.5.4 Metadata ............................................................................................................. 80 3.5.5 Associated text of images in biomedical academic papers ................................. 84 4 Literature review ................................................................................................................. 86 4.1 Introduction to digital accessibility ............................................................................. 86 4.1.1 Disability .............................................................................................................. 88 4.1.2 Assistive technologies ......................................................................................... 89 4.1.3 User groups ......................................................................................................... 89 4.1.4 Definition of accessible design principles addressed to images and image- related texts 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