We performed a comprehensive review of published articles, institutional reports, and other
literature to identify the current knowledge regarding file-format-selection criteria. We included
literature that deals with the three standard file formats (PDF, PDF/A, and XML) but excluded the
recently announced ODF format due to the scarcity of literature on ODF. Among more than the
thirty articles initially reviewed, only twenty-five that use their own clear attributes were included
in this study. All of the attributes that we have employed are listed by frequency and grouped
according to similarities in meaning (see appendix). The original definitions or descriptions that
we used are listed in the second column