Research Data Management: File Formats

Use non-proprietary file formats as much as possible. Non-proprietary file formats can be opened with many different software programs and most computer operating systems. Using non-proprietary file formats helps ensure long-term access to your data, while proprietary formats associated with specific software programs are more likely to become obsolete.

Example non-proprietary file formats:*

• Containers: TAR, GZIP, ZIP
• Databases: XML, CSV
• Geospatial: SHP, DBF, GeoTIFF, NetCDF
• Moving Images: MOV, MPEG, AVI, MXF
• Audio: WAVE, AIFF, MP3, MXF
• Numbers/statistics: ASCII, DTA, POR, SAS, SAV
• Images: TIFF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP
• Text: PDF/A, HTML, ASCII, XML, UTF-8
• Web Archive: WARC

* https://library.stanford.edu/research/data-management-services/data-best-practices/best-practices-file-formats

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