As a generalist repository, ScienceDB publishes data across all disciplines. As such, we do not impose restrictions on the format or subject area of a data submission. However, we have a preferred list of file formats which we think are conducive to data reusability and permanent accessibility. In the table below, we have listed both preferred and non-preferred formats as per each file type.
If the file format you use is not in our list, we suggest you evaluate it by the three criteria:
(1) whether the format is common in your discipline;
(2) whether the format has open standards;
(3) whether the format is independent of a peculiar software application, developer or supplier.
If the format you use is not in our list, your submission should meet all or most of the criteria above.
File type | Preferred format | Non-preferred format |
---|---|---|
Plain text | Unicode text(.txt) | Non-Unicode text(.txt) |
Markup language | XML(.xml) HTML(.html) Related files: .css, .xslt, .js, .es | SGML(.sgml) |
Text documents | PDF/A(.pdf) | ODT(.odt) MS Word Microsoft Word(.doc, .docx) Rich Text File (.rtf) PDF (.pdf) |
RDF | RDF/XML (.rdf) Trig (.trig) Turtle (.ttl) NTriple (.nt) JSON-LD | |
Spreadsheets | CSV(.csv) ODS(.ods) | MS Excel (.xls, .xlsx) PDF/A (.pdf) OOXML(.doc, .docx) |
Databasefile | SQL(.sql) SIARD (.siard) DB tables (.csv) | MS Access (.mdb, .accdb) (v.2000 or later) dBase (.dbf v.7 or later) HDF5 (.hdf5, .he5, .h5) |
Statistical data | SPSS Portable (.por) STATA (.dta) DDI (.xml) Data and setup (.csv +.txt) R | SPSS (.sav) SAS (.7dat, .sd2, .tpt) |
Raster images | JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) TIFF (.tif, .tiff) PNG (.png) JPEG 2000 (.jp2) DICOM (.dcm) | |
Images (vector) | SVG (.svg) | Adobe Illustrator (.ai) EPS (.eps) CDR (.cdr) WMF/EMF (.wmf, .emf) |
Audios | BWF (.bwf) MXF (.mxf) Matroska (.mka) FLAC (.flac) | WAVE (.wav) MP3 (.mp3) AAC (.aac, .m4a) AIFF (.aif, .aiff) OGG(.ogg) |