LibGuides: Research Data Management (RDM): Sustainable File Types

The file formats you choose will not only affect your ability to open those files at a later date, but also the ability of other people to access the data. You should also save your data in a non-proprietary file format when possible, as you may not have access to the proprietary software in the future.

Quantitative Data

Tabular data with minimal metadata

Preferred:

comma separated values file (.csv)
tab-delimited file (.tab).

Also acceptable:

OpenDocument Format Spreadsheet (.ods)

Tabular data with extensive metadata

Preferred:

SPSS portable format (.por)
eXtensible Mark-up Language (.xml)

Textual Qualitative Data

Preferred:

eXtensible Mark-up Language (.xml)
Rich Text Format (.rtf)
plain text format (.txt)
PDF/A

Also acceptable:

PDF
OpenDocument Text Format (.odf)
HTML

Geospatial Data

Preferred:

geo-referenced TIFF (.tif, .tfw)
Geographic Markup Language (.gml or .xml)

Also acceptable:

Keyhole Markup Language (.kml)
ESRI Shapefile (.shp, .shx, .dbf)
MapInfo (.mif/.mid)

Find tools for converting between Geospatial file types on our Spatial Data page

Images

Preferred:

TIFF (.tif)

Also acceptable:

JPEG (.jpg)
PNG (.png)
PDF/A

Video

Preferred:

MPEG4 (.mp4)

Also acceptable:

motion JPEG 2000 (.jp2)

Audio

Preferred:

Free Lossless Audio Codec (.flac)
MPEG audio layer III (.mp3) (for spoken word only audio)

Also acceptable:

Audio Interchange Format (.aif)
Wave Waveform Audio File Format (.wav)
MPEF audio layer III (.mp3)

Spectra

NMR, IR, Raman, UV, Mass Spec data

Preferred:

JCAMP

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

Preferred:

Extensible 3D (.x3D, .x3dv)
AutoCAD DXF (.dxf)

Also acceptable:

PDF/E
Universal 3D (.u3d)
Product Representation Compact (.prc)
AutoCAD (.dwg, .dxf)

Credit

Grateful acknowledgement to the University of Pennsylvania Penn Libraries for their permission to use and modify their template: Data Management Resources