JATS supports display and inline equations that “can be expressed as ASCII characters, as a graphic, or using TeX, LaTeX, or MathML mathematics expressions”. In other words, the benefits of an XML publishing workflow should extend to equations. Published math should be discoverable, accessible, and sustainable treating equations simply as graphics does not suffice. In short, published mathematics need to be both human readable and machine-readable.

We expect equations to look great and be useful (e.g., searchable, readable to the visually impaired, and perhaps even manipulable or solvable) on any electronic delivery system. The Internet allows us to share text and images seamlessly across platforms and systems, but similar demands for mathematical equations can fall short.

As a result, anyone involved in producing, publishing, or reading mathematical equations electronically knows that writing and publishing math is not a simple process. Mathematics is a fundamental building block of modern technology, research, and industry, and yet the technological means of publishing mathematics can still be surprisingly challenging. It also touches on workflow alternatives for handling equations in various rendering environments and how those downstream requirements may affect the means of equation extraction from Word documents. This paper clarifies the different forms of equations that can be encountered in Word documents and discusses the issues and idiosyncrasies of converting these various forms to MathML, LaTeX, and/or images in the JATS XML model. Building workflows that smoothly and accurately transform all of these formats into the appropriate XML markup for use in multiple rendering environments has many challenges. Authors have multiple means at their disposal to insert equations in Word documents, including several of Word's native equation editors and third-party applications, such as Design Science’s MathType.

Some of those papers include simple and/or complex math. The majority of today’s scholarly papers are authored in Microsoft Word.

Microsoft word 2003 equation editor 3.0