Ok, this must be possible. Can someone point me towards the correct serialization $params such that let $doi := <doi>10.1002/1521-4141(200207)32:7<2021::AID-IMMU2021>3.0.CO;2-J</doi> return serialize($doi, $params) will return (to a calling Java application) the UTF-8 string 10.1002/1521-4141(200207)32:7<2021::AID-IMMU2021>3.0.CO;2-J where the entities < and > have been replaced with the UTF-8 byte representation for U+003C and U+003E respectively? Thanks in advance, C. ________________________________ Elsevier B.V. Registered Office: Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Registration No. 33156677, Registered in The Netherlands.