Acceptable formats for transmitting and sharing different types of research data include: (a) Quantitative tabular data with minimal metadata, i.e. a dataset with or without attribute labels but no other metadata in addition to the data matrix; (b) Quantitative tabular data with extensive metadata, i.e. a dataset with attribute labels, code labels, defined missing values, and attribute definitions in addition to the data matrix: Structured data from a database such as MySQL, PostGres; (c) Geospatial data, i.e. vector and taster data: .shp, .tif/geotiff, Keyhole Mark-up Language, .kml; (d) Qualitative data, i.e. textual: ASCII plain text (.txt); (e) Gridded data: Network Common Data Form (NetCDF, .nc, .cdf); (e) Digital image data: Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg, .jpeg), TIFF (.tif), Adobe Portablel Document Format (.pdf); (f) Digital audio data: MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (.mp3), Waveform Audio Format (.wav); (g) Digital video data: Moving Picture Experts Group, Standard definition (.mp4, AVC/H.264), High definition (AVCHD/H.264); and, (h) Documentation, publications, and scripts: ASCII plain text (.txt).
