XPath for selecting a section of an article

Question

Suppose a section of an article is as follows (the html source):

Introduction
  ....
References
  ...a bunch of tex         


        

Answer 1

if you want elements until next h2 use such xpath

//*[following-sibling::h2[preceding-sibling::h2[1][contains(.,'References')]]  and preceding-sibling::h2[contains(.,'References')]]

Wath does it mean: it finds all element which has

-- ahead h2 which has the 1st preceding h2 containing 'References'

-- back h2 containing 'References'

The 1st rule takes all elements from begining of xml until next h2 tag. The 2nd -all after necessary h2 tag to end of xml. Intersection of them gives needed elements.

Or xpath maybe build on your suggestion:

//h2[.='References']/following-sibling::*[preceding-sibling::h2[1][contains(.,'References')] and not(name()='h2')]

take all after necessary h2 tag //h2[.='References']/following-sibling::* which is not h2 and has our h2 tag as the 1st h2 before