diff --git a/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/xml.py b/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/xml.py
index d0db5d2e7..a04738c7f 100644
--- a/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/xml.py
+++ b/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/xml.py
@@ -365,15 +365,14 @@ def extract_body_data(xml_tree, table_layout_overrides=None):
         if sec['title'] is not None:
             sec['title'] = ''.join(sec['title'].itertext()).strip()
 
-        # Collect textual paragraphs but exclude figure/table elements
+        # Collect textual paragraphs but exclude figure/table elements. Uses
+        # get_text_from_node (tail-preserving) rather than a bare
+        # `.xpath('.//text()...')` + `' '.join(...)`, which inserted an
+        # artificial space between every text-node fragment regardless of
+        # whether the source had one there (e.g. "(<xref>...</xref>)" came
+        # out as "( ... )", and "<xref/>; <xref/>" as "... ; ...").
         for para in document_section.findall('p'):
-            try:
-                # Get text nodes that are not inside fig or table-wrap
-                texts = para.xpath('.//text()[not(ancestor::fig) and not(ancestor::table-wrap)]')
-                para_text = ' '.join(' '.join(texts).split()).strip()
-            except Exception:
-                # Fallback to generic text extraction
-                para_text = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(para)
+            para_text = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(para, skip_tags={'fig', 'table-wrap'}).strip()
             if para_text:
                 sec['paragraphs'].append(para_text)
 
diff --git a/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/utils/xml_utils.py b/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/utils/xml_utils.py
index a250d945a..3bf3b90a1 100644
--- a/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/utils/xml_utils.py
+++ b/packtools/sps/formats/pdf/utils/xml_utils.py
@@ -1,40 +1,40 @@
-def get_text_from_node(node):
+import re
+
+
+def get_text_from_node(node, skip_tags=None):
     """
-    Extracts text from an XML node, including its children.
+    Extracts text from an XML node, including its children, preserving the
+    adjacency of the source (no space is inserted between fragments unless
+    one was already there as literal text or a tail).
 
     Args:
         node (ElementTree): The XML node to extract text from.
+        skip_tags (set, optional): Child tag names to drop entirely from the
+            output; only their `.tail` (the text that follows them in the
+            source) is kept. Used to flatten a paragraph to readable text
+            while excluding embedded elements such as <fig>/<table-wrap>.
 
     Returns:
         str: The text extracted from the given node.
     """
+    skip_tags = skip_tags or set()
     texts_els = []
 
     if node.text:
         texts_els.append(node.text)
 
     for child in node:
-        if child.tag == 'xref':
-            xref_text = child.text if child.text else ''
-            for subchild in child:
-                if subchild.tag in ('italic', 'bold'):
-                    xref_text += (subchild.text if subchild.text else '')
-                    if subchild.tail:
-                        xref_text += (subchild.tail if subchild.tail else '')
-            texts_els.append(xref_text)
-        elif child.tag in ('italic', 'bold'):
-            if child.text:
-                texts_els.append(child.text)
-            for subchild in child:
-                texts_els.append(get_text_from_node(subchild))
+        if child.tag in skip_tags:
+            pass
         else:
-            texts_els.append(get_text_from_node(child))
+            texts_els.append(get_text_from_node(child, skip_tags=skip_tags))
 
         if child.tail:
             texts_els.append(child.tail)
 
     text = ''.join(texts_els)
     text = _remove_double_spaces(text)
+    text = _normalize_punctuation_spacing(text)
     return text
 
 def get_node_level(element, root):
@@ -113,14 +113,36 @@ def _add_period(text):
 
 def _remove_double_spaces(text):
     """
-    Removes double spaces from the given text.
+    Collapses any run of whitespace (including tabs and newlines left over
+    from pretty-printed XML, e.g. the indentation tail of a skipped
+    <fig>/<table-wrap>) into a single space.
+
+    Args:
+        text (str): The text to normalize.
+
+    Returns:
+        str: The text with whitespace runs collapsed to single spaces.
+    """
+    return re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', text)
+
+def _normalize_punctuation_spacing(text):
+    """
+    Removes whitespace that ends up glued to the inside of parentheses and
+    brackets, or before a comma/semicolon, when the source XML has a space
+    directly before/after an inline element such as <xref> (e.g. "( <xref>
+    Fig. 1</xref> )") — a common defect that survives adjacency-preserving
+    extraction because the space is literal text, not an artifact of it.
 
     Args:
-        text (str): The text to remove double spaces from.
+        text (str): The text to normalize.
 
     Returns:
-        str: The text with double spaces removed.
+        str: The text with punctuation spacing normalized.
     """
-    while '  ' in text:
-        text = text.replace('  ', ' ')
+    text = re.sub(r'\(\s+', '(', text)
+    text = re.sub(r'\s+\)', ')', text)
+    text = re.sub(r'\[\s+', '[', text)
+    text = re.sub(r'\s+\]', ']', text)
+    text = re.sub(r'\s+;', ';', text)
+    text = re.sub(r'\s+,', ',', text)
     return text
diff --git a/tests/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/test_xml.py b/tests/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/test_xml.py
index 774630aae..583c41bc8 100644
--- a/tests/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/test_xml.py
+++ b/tests/sps/formats/pdf/pipeline/test_xml.py
@@ -417,6 +417,42 @@ def test_extract_body_data_with_table_references(self):
         result = xml_pipe.extract_body_data(xml)
         self.assertEqual(result, expected)
 
+    def test_paragraph_citations_have_no_stray_space_around_parentheses(self):
+        # Regression: a naive `.xpath('.//text()...')` + `' '.join(...)`
+        # inserted a space between every text-node fragment regardless of
+        # adjacency in the source, turning "(<xref>...</xref>; <xref>...
+        # </xref>)" into "( ... ; ... )".
+        xml = etree.fromstring(
+            '<article><sec><title>Introduction</title>'
+            '<p>Pressure is increasing '
+            '(<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B1">Lang and Barling, 2012</xref>'
+            '; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B2">Ripple et al., 2019</xref>) '
+            'worldwide.</p>'
+            '</sec></article>'
+        )
+        result = xml_pipe.extract_body_data(xml)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            result[0]['paragraphs'],
+            ['Pressure is increasing (Lang and Barling, 2012; Ripple et al., 2019) worldwide.'],
+        )
+
+    def test_embedded_fig_tail_whitespace_is_collapsed_not_left_raw(self):
+        # A skipped <fig>'s tail can carry the source's pretty-printing
+        # indentation (a newline + spaces); it must collapse to one space
+        # rather than leak into the rendered paragraph.
+        xml = etree.fromstring(
+            '<article><sec><title>Results</title>'
+            '<p>See the figure below\n'
+            '<fig id="f1"><label>Figure 1</label></fig>\n            '
+            'for details.</p>'
+            '</sec></article>'
+        )
+        result = xml_pipe.extract_body_data(xml)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            result[0]['paragraphs'],
+            ['See the figure below for details.'],
+        )
+
 
 class TestExtractCategory(unittest.TestCase):
 
diff --git a/tests/sps/formats/pdf/utils/test_xml_utils.py b/tests/sps/formats/pdf/utils/test_xml_utils.py
index e36c6ab9f..9e606f179 100644
--- a/tests/sps/formats/pdf/utils/test_xml_utils.py
+++ b/tests/sps/formats/pdf/utils/test_xml_utils.py
@@ -55,6 +55,64 @@ def test_get_text_from_node_multiple_xref_italic(self):
         result = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree)
         self.assertEqual(expected, result)
 
+    def test_get_text_from_node_preserves_parenthesis_adjacency(self):
+        # No space should be inserted between "(" and the xref text, or
+        # between the xref text and ")", when none exists in the source.
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>seen (<xref ref-type="bibr">Author, 2020</xref>; '
+            '<xref ref-type="bibr">Other, 2021</xref>) here</p>'
+        )
+        expected = 'seen (Author, 2020; Other, 2021) here'
+        result = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree)
+        self.assertEqual(expected, result)
+
+    def test_get_text_from_node_skip_tags_drops_content_but_keeps_tail(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>Before <fig id="f1"><label>Figure 1</label></fig> after</p>'
+        )
+        result = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree, skip_tags={'fig'})
+        self.assertEqual('Before after', result)
+
+    def test_get_text_from_node_skip_tags_collapses_tail_whitespace(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>Before\n<table-wrap id="t1"><label>Table 1</label></table-wrap>\n   after</p>'
+        )
+        result = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree, skip_tags={'table-wrap'})
+        self.assertEqual('Before after', result)
+
+    def test_get_text_from_node_without_skip_tags_keeps_fig_content(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>Before <fig id="f1"><label>Figure 1</label></fig> after</p>'
+        )
+        result = xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree)
+        self.assertEqual('Before Figure 1 after', result)
+
+    def test_get_text_from_node_with_sup_inside_xref(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>Author <xref ref-type="bibr"><sup>1,2</sup></xref> stated</p>'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual('Author 1,2 stated', xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree))
+
+    def test_get_text_from_node_nested_formatting_with_tail(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>Start <bold>bold <italic>and italic</italic> still bold</bold> end</p>'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            'Start bold and italic still bold end',
+            xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree),
+        )
+
+    def test_get_text_from_node_normalizes_spaces_around_parentheses_and_punctuation(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(
+            '<p>Studies ( <xref ref-type="bibr">Author, 2020</xref> ; '
+            '<xref ref-type="bibr">Other, 2021</xref> ) and [ <xref ref-type="bibr">1</xref> ] '
+            'with comma ( <xref ref-type="bibr">Foo, 2019</xref> , more).</p>'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            'Studies (Author, 2020; Other, 2021) and [1] with comma (Foo, 2019, more).',
+            xml_utils.get_text_from_node(xmltree),
+        )
+
 
 class TestGetTextFromMixedCitationNode(unittest.TestCase):