Research Engagement, Library

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RECOMMENDED FILE FORMATS

University of Reading Research Data Archive

Contents
Introduction: file format categories .............................................................................................................................. 1
Overview: formats for preservation and use .............................................................................................................. 1
Recommended file formats ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Acceptable file formats: general purpose ................................................................................................................... 4
Other file formats: specialist and rarely-used ............................................................................................................ 5
Further information ........................................................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction: file format categories

The University of Reading Research Data Archive will accept any file type that you choose to deposit,
but you should wherever possible aim to deposit files that are optimised for long-term preservation and
use. For these purposes, the Archive acknowledges three categories of files:

 Recommended file formats: standard preservation;

 Acceptable file formats: general purpose;
 Other file formats: specialist and rarely-used.

Guidance on file formats with examples of recommended and acceptable formats is provided in this
document.

Overview: formats for preservation and use

To ensure your data remain accessible and usable in the long term, you should where possible deposit
files in standard preservation file formats.

 Preservation formats typically encode information in a way that is software-independent or

allows interoperability between systems and applications. These are usually recognised
standard or open formats, such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), ASCII text (.txt), comma-
separated values (.csv), or XML.

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 Proprietary formats are more suitable for preservation if they are widely-used and can be
opened in different operating systems and with different programmes or applications:
examples include Microsoft Rich Text Format, Excel, and PDF.

 The preferred preservation formats for representations of image, audio and video data are
those that encode the information with a lossless algorithm, such as TIFF (.tif), Free Lossless
Audio Codec (.flac), and MPEG-4 (.mp4). Unlike lossy formats (e.g. JPEG, .mp3, WMV), lossless
formats do not cause data loss when files are saved.

We recommend you deposit your files in the Archive using open, platform-independent or non-
proprietary file formats wherever possible.
Preservation formats may not always be the most accessible or usable:

 Open formats may lack the formatting and functionality that allow data to be rendered,
manipulated and analysed more effectively.

 Information-rich lossless formats, such as high-resolution image or video, may produce very
large files which are not suited for web access or fast processing.

In such cases you may wish to deposit files in more than one format, so that data are optimised for both
preservation and use: for example, a richly-formatted Excel file containing manipulated tabular data
might be made available alongside a CSV file of the raw numbers; or a large TIFF image file might be
deposited for preservation, and a JPEG or other compressed image file made available for web
download.
You may need to document your file formats, for example, recording the version of the software used
to generate them, and including, if relevant, details of the compression, codec and bit rate used. This
information can be entered in the Data processing and preparation activities field in the Metadata
Record; it can also be recorded in a README.txt file or other documentation file uploaded with your
data.
For general information on choosing appropriate formats for preservation and other uses, consult the
Further information references at the end of this document.

Recommended file formats

The Archive supports and recommends the following file formats. These formats are optimised for
preservation, and you are encouraged to deposit files in these formats (converted from other formats
if necessary) wherever possible.

File type Format name File extension(s)

Microsoft Powerpoint XML .pptx

Microsoft Word XML .docx

Text OpenDocument Presentation .fodp, .odp

OpenDocument Text .fodt, .odt

Plain Text .txt, .asc

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File type Format name File extension(s)

Adobe PDF/A .pdf

Documentation Microsoft Word XML .docx

OpenDocument Text .fodt, .odt

CSS .css

HTML .htm, .html

Markup
SGML .sgm, .sgml

XML .xml

Comma separated values (CSV) .csv

Microsoft Excel XML .xlsx

Tabular
OpenDocument Spreadsheet .fods, .ods

Tab separated values .tsv, .tab

GIF .gif

JPEG 2000 .jpxml, .jp3d, .jpf, .jpm, .jpx, .jp2

PNG .png
Image/graphics
Postscript .ps

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) .svg

TIFF .tiff, .tif

AIFF .aiff, .aif, .aifc

Audio Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) .flac

WAV .wav

Motion JPEG2000 .mjp2, .mj2

Video
MPEG-4 .m4v, .m4r, .m4b, .m4p, .m4a, .mp4

Mineset .schema, .data

Minitab syntax and output .lis, .tj

R (ascii) .rdata

SAS syntax .sas

Database
SPSS portable .por

SPSS syntax .sps

Stata syntax .do, .dct

Structured Query Language .sql

CAD .dwg

Geospatial ESRI Shapefile .shp, .shx, .dbf, .prj, .sbx, .sbn

Geo-referenced TIFF .tif, .tfw

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Acceptable file formats: general purpose

The file formats listed below are not considered to be standard preservation formats, for one or more
of the following reasons:

 they are proprietary and system-, software- or version-dependent;

 they are lossy (data are lost when compression is applied);
 they are not as common as formats that have been recommended above.

These are mostly general-purpose formats, and as many are widely used, it is likely that the Archive will
be able to preserve them. But preservation of data files in these formats cannot be guaranteed, and
they are deposited at your own risk.
If you wish to preserve information, formatting or functionality encoded in files in these formats, you
may deposit the original files alongside the same files converted into standard preservation formats.
For instance, you could deposit your SPSS files (.por or .sav) along with standard preservation files in
SPSS syntax (.sps) and Plain Text (.txt) data files.

File type Format name File extension(s)

Microsoft Powerpoint .ppt

Microsoft Project .mpt, .mpp, .mpx, .mpd

Text Microsoft Word .doc

WordPerfect .w51, .wp5, .wp, .wpd

Rich Text Format .rtf

Microsoft Word .doc

Documentation
Rich Text Format .rtf

EAF File .eaf

LateX .ltx, .latex

Markup PFSX File .pfsx

TeX .tex

TeX dvi .dvi

Tabular Microsoft Excel .xls

Bitmap .ddb, .dib, .bmp

Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) .epsi, .epsf, .eps

JPEG .jpeg, .jpg, .jpe

Image/graphics Microsoft Visio .vsd

Photo CD .pcd

Photoshop .psd, .pdd

VTK (Visualisation ToolKit) .vtu

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File type Format name File extension(s)

Audio .au, .snd

FMP3 .fp, .fmp, .fp3, .fm

Audio
MPEG Audio .m4a, .mpa, .abs, .mpega

RealAudio .rpm, .ra, .ram

AVI Audio/Video Interleaved Format .avi

Flash Video .f4b, .f4a, .f4p, .f4v, .flv

MPEG .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe

Video
Ogg Vorbis Codec Compressed Multimedia .ogg
File

Video Quicktime .qtm, .mov, .qt

DBase, DBF .dbf

Microsoft Access .mdb, .accdb

Database
SPSS output file .spv, .spo

SPSS system file .sav, .gsav

BZIP2 .bz2, .bz

Compressed Archive File .zip

Archive
GZIP compressed archive file .gz

Tarball .tar

Other file formats: specialist and rarely-used

Some data may be saved in specialist or rarely-used software-dependent file formats that are domain-
specific or unique to the instruments or software from which the raw data were generated. These are
less likely to be suitable for long-term preservation, and there is a risk that in the future it will not be
possible to open the files, if the software becomes obsolete or is not easily available.
Where possible you should convert files to recommended or acceptable formats as listed above.
Original and converted files can be deposited together to maximise both current usability and long-
term accessibility.
If a file format is not listed in this document, you should ensure your documentation includes a
description of the file format and provides information about any software required to render the files.
If you have research data in file formats you are unsure about, need help converting your files to
standard preservation formats, wish to propose a file format for inclusion in this list, or have any other
enquiries, please contact us at [email protected].

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Further information
The National Archives. PRONOM. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/Default.aspx
Online registry of file formats.
UK Data Service. Recommended formats. http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-
data/format/recommended-formats
Recommended formats for depositing files in the UK DataService.
Wikipedia. List of file formats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_formats#Tabulated_data
Including common scientific data formats.

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