EXFOR Master File

Current version (Previous versions)

What is EXFOR Master File?

The EXFOR Master File is an official snapshot of the EXFOR library and collects all EXFOR entries and EXFOR/CINDA dictionary at the end of each year. Visit the IAEA EXFOR web retrieval system or EXFOR Entry File for the most updated EXFOR library. Two Git repositories (EXFOR Archive, EXFOR Main) also provide the current snapshot.

Terms of Use

When you redistribute it in the original or another form, or use it in a publication,

The EXFOR Master File is distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license. It is provided to the IAEA by the NRDC Network, which is a network under the auspices of the IAEA. As agreed by the NRDC Network, the IAEA has the role of publication and dissemination for all the data and resources provided to it by the NRDC Network.

(Recent publications citing the EXFOR Library)

Manuals

How to assemble the EXFOR Master File

A new EXFOR Master File is assembled by using "ForEX" (Utility Codes for EXFOR) distributed from the NRDC software website. This tool loads the previous EXFOR Master File as the starter, and update it by loading the EXFOR transmission (TRANS) tapes exchanged after production of the last EXFOR Master File. The sequence of assembling the EXFOR Master File ver. 2023 (EXFOR-2023) is:

  1. Download EXFOR-2022 (exfor-2022.zip) from the EXFOR-2022 website, and place the main file "exfor-2022.txt" under "./lib/".
  2. Download all TRANS tapes released in 2023 (trans.1500, ..., trans.v041) from the EXFOR Trans File website, and place them under "./trans/".
  3. Download the EXFOR Utility Codes ForEX.
  4. Run four scripts in the package (DIRINI, DIRUPD, MAKLIB, SEQADD) to assmble the EXFOR-2023 from the EXFOR-2022: 
    x4_dirini.py -l lib/exfor-2022.txt -d entry
x4_dirupd.py -t trans/trans.1500 -d entry
x4_dirupd.py -t trans/trans.1501 -d entry
...
x4_dirupd.py -t trans/trans.s032 -d entry
x4_dirupd.py -t trans/trans.v041 -d entry
x4_maklib.py -d entry -l lib/library.txt -i 2023
x4_seqadd.py -i lib/library.txt -o lib/exfor-2023.txt
    (See the EXFOR-2023 website for the list of all TRANS tapes used for update from EXFOR-2022 to EXFOR-2023.)
  5. The manual of ForEX is available as IAEA-NDS-0244.

History

Until c.a. 2005, some of exchanged EXFOR entries were modified before inclusion in centre's local database. Consequently, users sometimes met differences in an EXFOR entry received from two centres. Following a request from the NRDC (Action A20 of the NRDC 2004 meeting), NDS (O. Schwerer, S. Dunaeva, V. Zerkin) compared these variants (mainly two version maintained by NDS and NNDC) and created a Common EXFOR Master File (EXFOR-2005-06-16), which was officially released on 1 July 2005 (Conclusion C12 of the NRDC 2005 meeting). This first Common EXFOR Master File included "area 6" entries (EXFOR entries converted from the SCISRS library by NNDC), and a revised Common EXFOR Master File was released as EXFOR-2005-08-12 to eliminate them.

As the revisions of entries for EXFOR Master File production were not done by the usual exchange procedure (i.e., TRANS tape exchange), the centres initialised their local databases by loading the Common EXFOR Master File.

After release of this revised common EXFOR Master File in August 2005, the NRDC did not produce any new EXFOR Master File until November 2023. Meanwhile, the centres started to observe end users who would like to receive the full EXFOR Library. To satisfy their needs, the NRDC decided to start production of a new series of the EXFOR Master File for end users (Conclusion C5 of the NRDC 2023 meeting).

The first version of the new series (EXFOR-2015) was created based on an EXFOR Backup (a complete set of EXFOR entries produced by NDS to help maintenance of centres' local databases) Ver.2015-03-11 and subsequent exchanges by the end of 2015. With EXFOR-2015 and further exchanges done in 2016-2022, seven more new EXFOR Master Files (EXFOR-2016 to EXFOR-2022) were retroactively produced.

Since the end of 2023, the NRDC produces a new EXFOR Master File at the end of every year to share the snapshot of the EXFOR library with the end users.

The EXFOR Master File is produced by using the EXFOR Utility Codes. See also Memo CP-D/1096 for a Java program for local maintenance of EXFOR Master File.