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MECA

Introduction

MECA (Manuscript Exchange Common Approach) is a NISO-standardized package format for exchanging manuscripts and related files (figures, supplementary data, metadata) between scholarly publishing systems. A MECA package bundles a JATS XML article with its associated assets into a single archive.

Usage

Use the .meca file extension, or the --from meca option, when importing from a MECA package e.g.

stencila convert article.meca doc.smd
Info

MECA is currently supported for import (decoding) only.

Implementation

MECA decoding is implemented in the Rust crate codec-meca. The codec extracts the primary article content (typically JATS XML) from the package and decodes it using the JATS codec.

Limitations

  • Export (encoding) to MECA is not supported.

  • Only the primary article content is extracted; supplementary materials and review metadata may not be fully imported.

  • The MECA manifest must follow the standard structure for the codec to locate the article file.

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