ASTM International Standard Specification for Analytical Data Interchange Protocol for Mass Spectrometric Data ASTM E2077-00(2016)

This specification covers an analytical data interchange protocol for mass spectrometric data representation and a software vehicle to affect the transfer of mass spectrometric data between instrument data systems. This specification does not provide for the storage of data acquired simultaneous to and integrated with the mass spectrometric data, but on other detectors. The protocol, which is designed to benefit users of analytical instruments and increase laboratory productivity and efficiency, provides a standardized format for the creation of raw data files, library spectrum files or results files. This file, which has a ".cdf" extension, contains typical header information like instrument, sample, and acquisition method description, followed by raw, library, or processed data. Once data have been written or converted to this protocol, they can be read and processed by software packages that support the protocol. This protocol is intended to perform the following functions: (1) transfer data between various vendors' instrument systems; (2) provide Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) communications; (3) link data to document processing applications; (4) link data to spreadsheet applications, and (5) archive analytical data, or a combination thereof.