If you're working with a specialized software that forces you to use a proprietary or nonstandard file format, you can do a few things to help ensure your data's usability in the future.
Do you need to review data that is in a specific format you are unfamiliar in? The Data Curation Network regularly produces Curation Primers on various file formats or data types with information on how to evaluate if the file (not the content) to see how to make the data more ethical, reusable, and understandable.
Here are some of the great primers to investigate:
Tabular data with minimal metadata
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Tabular data with extensive metadata
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Find tools for converting between Geospatial file types on our Spatial Data page
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*uncompressed files are preferred over compressed files. If compression must occur, it needs to be lossless.
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Also acceptable:
*uncompressed files are preferred over compressed files. If compression must occur, it needs to be lossless.
NMR, IR, Raman, UV, Mass Spec data
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