JATS is well documented. In fact, we have been told that JATS is over documented (we disagree). The official documentation of JATS is the JATS standard, which states the rules of the vocabulary. Like most standards, it does not contain explanations, advice to the user, or examples. In our opinion, the main value in the standard is the fact that it exists.
The JATS multi-language mechanism is clearly and helpfully described both in the JATS non-normative documentation (Tag Libraries) and in several articles and conference papers:
The most complete introduction is the discussion called “Multiple Languages/scripts” inside the “Common Tagging Practice” section of each of the JATS Tag Libraries. This essay includes: discussion of the requirements for multiple language encoding, a description of the basic JATS 1.4 attribute and element mechanism, definitions and restrictions for all the multilingual attributes, an explanation of other JATS changes that were made to accommodate multilingual encoding, and numerous examples. [[JATSMultilang]]
The “Attribute” Chapter of each JATS 1.4 Tag Library documents each of the multi-language attributes individually (with definition, values, and examples). [[JATSTaglib]]
Encoding multilingual bibliographic references is described in “Multiple Language Citations” subsection of the “References” subsection of the “Common Tagging Practice” section of each of the JATS Tag Libraries. [[JATSMLCit]]
Many additional multi-language attribute examples are provided by B. Tommie Usdin in her JATS-Con 2025 paper “Tagging multi-lingual documents in JATS 1.4: Some Examples”. [[JATSMLExamples]]
There have been presentations on the JATS multi-language mechanism at JATS-Con ([[NewinJATS1.4], [ImproveMLJATCon], [JATSMLExamples]]), in the NISO Update series [[JATSUpdt]], and a paper about it was published in “Science Editing” [[ImproveML]].
For full technical details, examples, and discussions of usage we refer the reader to these sources.