The terms „file type“ and „file format“ are often used interchangeably. A distinction is made between proprietaryProprietary file formats are file formats that cannot be opened or read by third parties, or only with difficulty, because they are protected by license or patent. In most cases, special (paid) software is required for this (Wikipedia, 2023). Examples include the Word format.docx or the Adobe Photoshop format.psd. Read More and open file formats. Proprietary formats usually require fee-based software to access, as they may not be compatible with other programs (e.g., PowerPoint for .ppt files or Photoshop for .psd files). In contrast, open formats such as .rtf or .png are based on standards and can be opened by many programs.

Research data intended for archiving should be provided in the following formats (Biernacka et al., 2021):