18.4.

2023 Recommended formats — UK Data Service

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Recommended formats

Recommended formats

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Recommended formats

File formats recommended by the UK Data Service

The table contains guidance on le formats recommended and accepted by the UK Data
Service for data sharing, reuse and preservation.

You may need to convert your data les to a preservation le format.

We welcome queries from researchers about appropriate le formats for working and
preservation, particularly early in the research process. If you are unsure of the suitability
of your le formats for the data you want to deposit with the UK Data Service, please get in
touch.

Type of data Recommended formats Other acceptable formats

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18.4.2023
Type of data
Quantitative tabular data
with extensive metadata.
A dataset with variable
labels, code labels, and
de ned missing values, in
addition to the matrix of
data.
Quantitative tabular data
with minimal metadata.
A matrix of data with or
without column headings
or variable names, but no
other metadata or labeling. data de nition statements
where appropriate.
Geospatial data.
Vector and raster data.
https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/learning-hub/research-data-management/format-your-data/recommended-formats/
Recommended formats — UK Data Service
Recommended formats Other acceptable formats
Proprietary formats of
statistical packages e.g. SPSS
(.sav), Stata (.dta), .sas7bdat.
Delimited text and command
(‘setup’) le (SPSS, Stata, SAS, SPSS portable format (.por).
etc.) containing metadata
MS Access (.mdb/.accdb).
information.
Some structured text or mark-
up le containing metadata
information, e.g. DDI XML le.
Delimited text of given
Comma-separated values (CSV) character set – only
le (.csv). characters not present in the
data may be used as
Tab-delimited le (.tab). delimiters (.txt).
Including delimited text of Widely-used formats: MS
given character set with SQL Excel (.xls/.xlsx), MS Access
(.mdb/.accdb),
OpenDocument
Spreadsheet (.ods).
ESRI Geodatabase format
(.mdb).
ESRI Shape le (essential – .shp, MapInfo Interchange Format
.shx, .dbf, optional – .prj, .sbx, (.mif) for vector data.
.sbn).
Keyhole Mark-up Language
Geo-referenced TIFF (.tif, .tfw). (.kml).
CAD data (.dwg). Adobe Illustrator (.ai), CAD
Tabular GIS attribute data. data (.dxf or .svg).
Binary formats of GIS and
CAD packages.
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18.4.2023 Recommended formats — UK Data Service

Type of data Recommended formats Other acceptable formats

eXtensible Mark-up Language Hypertext Mark-up
(XML) text according to an Language (.html).
appropriate Document Type
Qualitative data. Widely-used formats: MS
De nition (DTD) or schema
Word (.doc/.docx).
(.xml).
Textual.
Some software-speci c
Rich Text Format (.rtf).
formats: NUD*IST, NVivo
Plain text data, ASCII (.txt). and ATLAS.ti.

JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg) but only if

created in this format.

TIFF (other versions) (.tif,

.ti ).

TIFF version 6 uncompressed Adobe Portable Document

(.tif). Format (PDF/A, PDF) (.pdf).

Digital Imaging and Standard applicable RAW

Digital image data.
Communications in Medicine image format (.raw).
(DICOM) (.dcm, .dcm30) – for
CT/MRI data. Photoshop les (.psd).

BMP (.bmp) but only if

created in this format.

PNG (.png) but only if

created in this format.

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3

(.mp3) if original created in
this format.

Free Lossless Audio Codec Audio Interchange File

Digital audio data.
(FLAC) (. ac). Format (.aif).

Waveform Audio Format

(.wav).

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18.4.2023 Recommended formats — UK Data Service

Type of data Recommended formats Other acceptable formats

MOV (.mov)
MPEG-4 (.mp4).
Windows Media Video
OGG video (.ogv, .ogg).
Digital video data. (WMV) (.wmv).
motion JPEG 2000 (.mj2).
WebM (.webm).

Plain text (.txt).

Rich Text Format (.rtf).
Widely-used proprietary
PDF/A or PDF (.pdf). formats: MS Word
(.doc/.docx), MS Excel
HTML (.htm).
Documentation and (.xls/.xlsx).
scripts. OpenDocument Text (.odt).
XML marked-up text (.xml)
R Markdown les (.rmd) (with according to an appropriate
HTML version as well). DTD or schema, e.g. XHMTL
1.0.

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