GUIDELINES FOR DEPOSITORS: Downloads

Version 4.0 July 2020

Guideline quick links

Navigate to a section of the guidelines using the links below:

Downloads and Quick Links

ADS Deposit Checklist PDF, Microsoft Word

File Formats and Metadata

File-level metadata is the information required for ADS to archive and disseminate files within a larger dataset, this will commonly include notes on the software used, lists of file names, and contextual information. Required file-level metadata will differ dependent on data type and for each data type, only certain types of file formats are accepted.

Preferred file formats are open stable formats suitable for preservation (may be converted to a more accessible web format for dissemination). Whereas acceptable file formats may be sufficient for dissemination, but need work to convert into a preservation-suitable format and may need more extensive curation in the future.

Data Type Requirements

This table lists all file types we accept with a template of the required metadata associated with each type. Click on the data type to learn more about that specific type.

Data Type	Preferred File Format	Accepted File Format	Metadata Template Download Type	Example
Collection-level Metadata	None	None	Microsoft Word Open Office Document	None
3D Models, Visualisation, and Virtual Reality	Virtual Reality Modelling Language .vrml Wavefront OBJ File .obj (+ .mtl + jpg textures)	Adobe Portable Document Format (3D) .pdf This is accepted for dissemination purposes only, it is not suitable for preservation of 3D data. STL .stl	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet	None
Audio	Broadcast Wave Format .bwf Waveform Audio .wav	Advanced Audio Coding .aac Audio Interchange File .aif Flac .flac MPEG3 .mp3 Speex .ogg	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	None
Binary and Plain Text (Documents)	Microsoft Word .doc/.docx OpenDocument Text .odt	Plain text .txt Portable Document Format .pdf Rich Text Format .rtf Text encoding, DTD or schema .xml, .sgml, .html, .xhtml	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	Text PDF
CAD and Vector graphics	AutoCAD (2018 or later) .dwg Scalable Vector Graphics .svg	AutoCAD (2017 or earlier) .dwg Drawing Interchange Format .dxf	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	Vector PDF
Databases	Comma-separated values .csv	Dbase .dbf Delimited text .txt Exchange formats .json/.xml/.rdf Microsoft Access .mdb/.accdb Microsoft Excel .xls/.xlsx Structured Query Language Data .sql	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	Database PDF
Geophysics	Raw xyz data .txt/.csv SEG-Y .segy Rendered images .png or .tif (+ world file: .pgw or .tfw) or GeoTIFF All files should be accompanied by a geo-rectified TIFF of high quality and a pre-processed composite file(s) of raw data	Raw contour data .dat/.rep	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	Geophysics PDF
GIS (General)	ESRI Shapefile .shp (+ .shx + .dbf and other associated files) Geography Markup Language .gml	ArcInfo Interchange .e00 MapInfo Interchange Format .mif + .mid	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	GIS PDF
GIS (Geodatabases)	None	Delimited text and ESRI Shapefile .csv + .shp GeoJSON .geojson	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	GIS PDF
GIS (Raster)	Geo-referenced TIF Image .tif (+ world file: .tfw) or GeoTIFF	ERDAS Imagine files .img (+ .rrd, aux.xml, img.xml) ESRI GRID ascii .asc/.grd ESRI GRID binary .adf JPG World .jpg + .jpw (.rrd, .aux, .xml) Keyhole Markup Language .kml PNG World .png + .pgw (.rrd,.aux,.xml)	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	GIS PDF
Harris Matrices	BASP, Stratify, and ArchEd exports .lst Delimited Text .txt Comma Separated Values .csv	Microsoft Excel .xls or .xlsx	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	None
Digital photography and Raster Images	Joint Photographic Expert Group .jpeg/.jpg Uncompressed Baseline TIFF v.6 .tiff/.tif	Adobe Digital Negative .dng Adobe Portable Document Format .pdf Bit-Mapped Graphics Format .bmp Graphics Interchange Format .gif Portable Network Graphics .png JPEG2000 .jp2/.jpx	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	Raster Image PDF
Laser Scanning	ASCII TXT point clouds .txt E57 point cloud format .e57	Cyclone ASCII export .pts	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet	None
LIDAR and Satellite Imagery	ASPRS Lidar Data Exchange Format .las GeoTIFF .tif	None	Depositors wishing to deposit LIDAR are urged to contact us for information on appropriate formats and metadata.
Linked Data formats	Depositors wishing to deposit Linked Data formats are urged to contact us for information on appropriate formats and metadata.
Markup Language	Depositors wishing to deposit Markup Language are urged to contact us for information on appropriate formats and metadata.
Medical Imaging	Joint Photographic Expert Group .jpeg/.jpg Uncompressed Baseline TIFF v.6 .tiff/.tif	DICOM files .dcm, off-line media	Depositors wishing to deposit Medical Imaging are urged to contact us for information on appropriate formats and metadata.
Photogrammetry	Models Virtual Reality Modelling Language .vrml Wavefront OBJ File .obj (+ .mtl + jpg textures) Raster image .jpg, .tif or .dng	Models Adobe Portable Document Format (3D) .pdf This is accepted for dissemination purposes only, it is not suitable for preservation of 3D data.	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet	None
Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)	Raster Images .jpg, .tif, or .dng Reflectance Transformation Imaging .RTI/.PTM (+ XML + XMP + LP files)	None	Depositors wishing to deposit PTM and RTI are urged to contact us for further advice on appropriate metadata.
Scientific Data	Depositors wishing to deposit Scientific Data are urged to contact us for information on appropriate formats and metadata.
Spreadsheets	Comma Separated Values .csv Microsoft Excel .xls/.xlsx OpenOffice Calc 2.0 .ods	Delimited text .txt	Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	Spreadsheet PDF
Video and Moving Images	MPEG1 .mpeg/.mpg MPEG2 .mpeg/.mpg MPEG4 .mp4		Microsoft Excel Open Office Spreadsheet csv	None

If the data type you require is not listed above, please contact us for information on appropriate formats and metadata.