File Formats

What is RDM?

UTHM Data Stewards

Guidelines on RDM

Data Repositories

File Formats

Deciding on suitable formats for your research data at the outset of your research projects is crucial, as it dictates the data's potential uses, analyses, storage, and future reuse.

Contained within this table is guidance on recommended and accepted file formats, sourced from the following references: UK Data Service.

Type of Data	Recommended formats	Other acceptable formats
Quantitative tabular data with extensive metadata. A dataset with variable labels, code labels, and defined missing values, in addition to the matrix of data.	Proprietary formats of statistical packages e.g. SPSS (.sav), Stata (.dta), .sas7bdat. Delimited text and command (‘setup’) file (SPSS, Stata, SAS, etc.) containing metadata information. Some structured text or mark-up file containing metadata information, e.g. DDI XML file.	SPSS portable format (.por). MS Access (.mdb/.accdb).
Quantitative tabular data with minimal metadata. A matrix of data with or without column headings or variable names, but no other metadata or labeling.	Comma-separated values (CSV) file (.csv). Tab-delimited file (.tab). Including delimited text of given character set with SQL data definition statements where appropriate.	Delimited text of given character set – only characters not present in the data may be used as delimiters (.txt). Widely-used formats: MS Excel (.xls/.xlsx), MS Access (.mdb/.accdb), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).
Geospatial data. Vector and raster data.	ESRI Shapefile (essential – .shp, .shx, .dbf, optional – .prj, .sbx, .sbn). Geo-referenced TIFF (.tif, .tfw). CAD data (.dwg). Tabular GIS attribute data.	ESRI Geodatabase format (.mdb). MapInfo Interchange Format (.mif) for vector data. Keyhole Mark-up Language (.kml). Adobe Illustrator (.ai), CAD data (.dxf or .svg). Binary formats of GIS and CAD packages.
Qualitative data. Textual.	eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) text according to an appropriate Document Type Definition (DTD) or schema (.xml). Rich Text Format (.rtf). Plain text data, ASCII (.txt).	Hypertext Mark-up Language (.html). Widely-used formats: MS Word (.doc/.docx). Some software-specific formats: NUD*IST, NVivo and ATLAS.ti.
Digital image data.	TIFF version 6 uncompressed (.tif). Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) (.dcm, .dcm30) – for CT/MRI data.	JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg) but only if created in this format. TIFF (other versions) (.tif, .tiff). Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF/A, PDF) (.pdf). Standard applicable RAW image format (.raw). Photoshop files (.psd). BMP (.bmp) but only if created in this format. PNG (.png) but only if created in this format.
Digital audio data.	Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) (.flac).	MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (.mp3) if original created in this format. Audio Interchange File Format (.aif). Waveform Audio Format (.wav).
Digital video data.	MPEG-4 (.mp4). OGG video (.ogv, .ogg). motion JPEG 2000 (.mj2).	MOV (.mov) Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv). WebM (.webm).
Documentation and scripts.	Rich Text Format (.rtf). PDF/A or PDF (.pdf). HTML (.htm). OpenDocument Text (.odt). R Markdown files (.rmd) (with HTML version as well).	Plain text (.txt). Widely-used proprietary formats: MS Word (.doc/.docx), MS Excel (.xls/.xlsx). XML marked-up text (.xml) according to an appropriate DTD or schema, e.g. XHMTL 1.0.