StatDataML : an XML format for statistical data

In order to circumvent common difficulties in exchanging statistical data between heterogeneous applications (format incompatibilities, technocentric data representation), we introduce an XML-based markup language for statistical data, called StatDataML. After comparing StatDataML to other data concepts, we detail the design which borrows from the language S, such that data objects are basically organized as recursive and non-recursive structures, and may also be supplemented with meta-information.