Preferred
  
  1. Platform-independent, character-based formats are preferred over native or binary formats as long as data is complete, and retains full detail and precision. Preferred formats include well-developed, widely adopted, de facto marketplace standards, e.g.
    a. Formats using well known schemas with public validation tool available
    b. Line-oriented, e.g. TSV, CSV, fixed-width
    c. Platform-independent open formats, e.g. .db, .db3, .sqlite, .sqlite3
  
  2. Any proprietary format that is a de facto standard for a profession or supported by multiple tools (e.g. Excel .xls or .xlsx, Shapefile)
  
  3. Character Encoding, in descending order of preference:
    a. UTF-8, UTF-16 (with BOM),
    b. US-ASCII or ISO 8859-1
    c. Other named encoding
  
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  Acceptable
  
  For data (in order of preference):
  
  1. Non-proprietary, publicly documented formats endorsed as standards by a professional community or government agency, e.g. CDF, HDF
  2. Text-based data formats with available schema
  
  For aggregation or transfer:
  
  1. ZIP, RAR, tar, 7z with no encryption, password or other protection mechanisms.