Preferred file format

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)