Preferred digital formats

When depositing your data, it’s best to use open, non-proprietary formats that are widely adopted within the geoscience research community. This approach ensures broad accessibility without requiring specialist software, facilitating data sharing and preservation.

If your data currently exists in a proprietary format, consider converting it to an open format appropriate for the data type. For example, tabular data is often best saved as comma-separated values (.csv), a format known for its robustness and compatibility with various software tools.

In cases where no suitable open format exists or conversion could lead to data loss, proprietary formats may be acceptable. These situations are evaluated individually, so please consult with us if you’re uncertain.

This is our guide for the preferred data deposit formats for different data types within geoscience. Further guidance is given for the geotechnical AGS data format standard, as well as the BGS AGS validation tool and the AGS4 file utilities tool and API (for AGS v4.x validation).

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact contact NGDC (ngdc@bgs.ac.uk).

Preferred formats

**Table 1** Geotechnical data
Data subtype	File format information	File extension
Not applicable	Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists For BGS specific guidance on the AGS format, visit NGDC AGS data format	.ags

**Table 2** Geophysical data
Data subtype	File format information	File extension
Well logs	Log ASCII standard by the Canadian Well Logging Society	.las
Well logs	Digital log information system	.dlis
Remote sensing	ASPRS Lidar data exchange format	.las
Seismic	Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN)	.seed .mseed .sgy .segy
Seismic	SAC binary data files	.sac
Sidescan sonar data	eXtended Triton format	.xtf


Data subtype	File format information	File extension
Vector data	ESRI shapefiles, consisting of three mandatory files and additional optional (recommended) files	.shp .shx .dbf (.prj) (.xml) (.sbn) (.sbx)
Vector data	Original format + open source software libraries (something from GDAL; QGIS; OGR; Geotools lists)
Vector data	ESRI file geodatabase	.gdb
Vector data	OGC GeoPackage	.gpkg
Vector data	GeoJSON RFC 7946, a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript object notation (JSON)	.json
GIS vector and raster combined	Most complete data (all layers and appendices) even if proprietary
GIS vector and raster combined	ESRI Arc geodatabase (GeoDB_File)	.gdb
GIS vector and raster combined	OGC GeoPackage encoding standard family of formats	.gpkg
GIS vector and raster combined	Formats supported by open-source software libraries (GDAL, QGIS, OGR and GeoTools lists)
GIS vector and raster combined	Personal geodatabase (ESRI ArcGIS V.10, 10.8)
Raster and georeferenced data	Most complete data (all layers and appendices) even if proprietary
Raster and georeferenced data	GeoTIFF, a format extension for storing georeference and geocoding information in a TIFF 6.0-compliant raster file by tying a raster image to a known model space or map projection A GeoTIFF file is a TIFF 6.0 file that uses a defined set of TIFF tags to describe cartographical information associated with TIFF imagery that originates from satellite imaging systems, scanned aerial photography, scanned maps or digital elevation models, or as a result of geographic analyses	.tif .tiff .gtiff
Raster and georeferenced data	NetCDF CF 64-bit (network common data form) is a file format for storing multidimensional scientific data (variables) such as temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction. Each of these variables can be displayed through a dimension (such as time) in ArcGIS by making a layer or table view from the netCDF file NetCDF classic and 64-bit offset format are an international standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium	.nc
Raster and georeferenced data	OGC GeoPackage	.gpkg
Raster and georeferenced data	GML in JPEG 2000	.jpx .jp2

**Table 4** Databases, datasets and spreadsheets
File format information	File extension
Line-oriented, fixed-width tabular data text file	.csv
Open document spreadsheet	.ods
Tab-separated values file	.tab
SQLite database file format (relational database management system) A platform-independent open format that doesn’t define a formal file extension, but these four are commonly used	.db .sqlite .db3 .sqlite3
MySQL export	Not applicable
Oracle export dump file	.dmp
Latest Microsoft Excel version as a de facto standard (currently from MS Excel 2007 onwards) Based on the Office Open XML file format	.xlsx
Software-independent archiving of relational databases (SIARD) Open standard and supported by the SIARD software of the Swiss Federal Archives SIARD format is a zip file (based on the 64 bit extension of the zip format introduced by PkWare Inc. with version 4.5 of the zip format definition in order to avoid size limitations, which are unrealistic for databases) containing an XML file describing the database structure (database metadata) as well as a collection of XML files describing the table content (database primary data) as well as (optionally) some text files and some binary files representing database large objects (BLOBs and CLOBs). SIARD format is used for archiving databases adhering to the SQL	Not applicable

**Table 5** Text
File format information	File extension
Extensible markup language and other ISO 19139 XML-based markup file formats (such as .gml, .kml)	.xml
JavaScript object notation data interchange (open standard format)	.json
PDF/A format family (PDF/A (1a, b) to (2 a, b, u) to (3a, b, u))	.pdf
Open document text	.odt .ott
Latest Microsoft Word version as a de facto standard (currently from MS Excel 2007 onwards) Based on the Office Open XML file format	.docx
Hypertext markup language	.html .htm
Rich text	.rtf
ASCII text 8-bit	.asc
Plain text (ASCII)	.txt

**Table 6** Still imagery
File format information	File extension
Tagged image format	.tif .tiff
JPEG 2000	.jp2
JPEG file interchange format (JFIF)	.jpg .jpeg
Portable network graphics (PNG)	.png
Adobe digital negative (DNG)	.dng
Scalable vector graphics file format family	.svg
Graphics interchange format	.gif

**Table 7** 3D objects
File format information	File extension
AutoCAD drawing interchange format family	.dwg
Polygon file format family	.ply
Wavefront OBJ	.obj

**Table 8** Audiovisual
File format information	File extension
QuickTime	.mov
Moving picture experts group	.mp4
WAVE audio file format with embedded metadata	.wav
Digital moving picture exchange bitmap	.dpx

**Table 9** Presentations
File format information	File extension
Microsoft PowerPoint	.pptx
Open document presentation	.odp