The format of the digital data files you work with during your research may be determined by the research equipment and computer hardware and software that you use. However, depending on the format and the tools you are using, converting to a different file format may be best for preservation and access.
Recommended file formats that best support sharing, reuse, and preservation are formats that are open, software-neutral, unencrypted, uncompressed, and in use within disciplinary communities.
Stanford University Libraries Data Management Services has made a useful overview of recommended file formats available:
Containers: TAR, GZIP, ZIP
Databases: XML, CSV
Geospatial: SHP, DBF, GeoTIFF, NetCDF
Moving images: MOV, MPEG, AVI, MXF
Sounds: WAVE, AIFF, MP3, MXF
Statistics: ASCII, DTA, POR, SAS, SAV
Still images: TIFF, JPEG 2000, PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP
Tabular data: CSV
Text: XML, PDF/A, HTML, ASCII, UTF-8
Web archive: WARC
When making a plan of action for data, evaluating the following may be useful:
Planning how you are going to name your files will help you find files easier, avoid duplication, and help you close-out projects quicker. When naming files remember to:
original document: Bisondata_1.0
original document with minor revisions: Bisondata_1.1