Nuclear Data Section
International Atomic Energy Agency
P.O.Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria

Memo CP-D/435

Date:
To:
From:

24 June 2005
Distribution
O. Schwerer, S. Dunaeva, V. Zerkin

Subject:

Common EXFOR master file and Dictionary Transmission 9088

According to Actions A20, A21 of last year's NRDC meeting, NDS has produced a common
EXFOR master file which is now available for downloading as described in WP 2004-11.
At the same time, a new dictionary transmission (9088) was produced which can also bedownloaded. As in the last transmission 9087, both the "old" and "new" dictionaries areincluded (compare memo CP-D/432).
Full EXFOR Master Files and Dictionaries and EXFOR TRANS Files can be downloaded fromhttp://www-nds.iaea.org/exfor-master/backup/

with contents like this:DICTS-2005-07-01.zip 01-Jul-2005
EXFOR-2005-06-16.zip 16-Jun-2005
TRANS.O054.zip
15-Jul-2005
TRANS.1524.zip
17-Jul-2005
exfor-2005-07-18.zip 18-Jul-2005

Dictionaries as of 2005-Jul-01
EXFOR Master File as of 2005-Jun-16
EXFOR Trans O054 (fictitious example)
EXFOR Trans 1524 (fictitious example)
EXFOR Backup File as of 2005-Jul-18

New versions of the master file, synchronized with dictionaries, will be made available every 3months. (See WP 2004-11 for more details). By displaying the above web directory sorted bydate (“Last modified”), the chronology of updates can easily be followed.
The comparison of the master files was mainly based on comparing the NDS with the NNDCfile. The reason is that at NNDC many unilateral corrections and modifications were done
which were not made available to the other centers. NDS checked all cases individually anddecided whether the NDS or the NNDC version was to be taken. On the other hand, NDS nevermade unilateral changes to data received from other centers. Therefore, all new or corrected
entries properly transmitted to NDS should exist unchanged in the NDS file, and no systematicdifferences between the NDS file and the originating center's own file exist.
A complete list of all differences found between the NDS and NNDC files, and the decision
which version was taken for the common master file, can be found in:
http://www-nds.iaea.org/exfor-master/x4merge/Results/

The resulting file is certainly better than any previously existing master file, and all centers areinvited to take it over, so that from now on only NDS has to do the regular updates. Anyway,
every center still has the option of keeping their own file and updating it with the individual
TRANS files (which will also be available through the web page given above), if so desired.
However, all retransmissions from now on must be based on the common master file as starting
version, to keep the data compatible.
In order not to lose any data and information, and being able to roll-back to the original data ofeach center, we recommend to all centers to keep an archival version of their own area. We also
propose to all centers to send these archives to NDS, where the data will be stored and will
always be available.
While this common file can be considered a significant improvement concerning quality andefficient file maintenance, it is understood that further corrections will be needed. E.g.,
mistakes which are the same in all master files, are not found in such an exercise and need to becorrected in the usual way. Furthermore, all centers are invited to go through the comparison
list mentioned above. Should there be cases where the version of an entry adopted for thecommon master file is considered incorrect by the originating center, a retransmission should
be made in the usual way (with brief explanation by e-mail).
As a consequence of the new procedure of data exchange via the central place, we need a new
operation on the master file to be introduced, that was not foreseen in the old rules: complete
replacement of a whole ENTRY. This procedure was implemented at NDS for the present
merging project, and probably will be needed occasionally in the future. This topic will be
proposed for discussion at the next NRDC meeting.
The latest TRANS files included from each area are:1332, 2171, 3116, 4133, A060, B019, C073, D038, E031, F020, G011, J002, L006, M036,O023, P003, R014, S010, T019, V026.

Distribution:
oblozinsky@bnl.gov
vml@bnl.gov
drochman@bnl.gov
nordborg@nea.fr
manokhin@ippe.obninsk.ru
samaev@obninsk.ru
Mmarina@ippe.obninsk.ru
blokhin@ippe.obninsk.ru
feliks@polyn.kiae.su
chukreev@polyn.kiae.su
S.Dunaeva@iaea.org
taova@expd.vniief.ru
varlamov@depni.sinp.msu.ru

chiba@earth.sgu.ac.jp
kato@nucl.sci.hokudai.ac.jp
ohnishi@nucl.sci.hokudai.ac.jp
ohbayasi@meme.hokudai.ac.jp
yxzhuang@iris.ciae.ac.cn
gezg@iris.ciae.ac.cn
hongwei@iris.ciae.ac.cn
tarkanyi@atomki.hu
stakacs@atomki.hu
katakura@ndc.tokai.jaeri.go.jp
hasegawa@ndc.tokai.jaeri.go.jp
vlasov@kinr.kiev.ua
kaltchenko@kinr.kiev.ua

ogritzay@kinr.kiev.ua
jhchang@kaeri.re.kr
ohtsuka@nucl.sci.hokudai.ac.jp
m.wirtz@iaea.org
schwerer@iaeand.iaea.org
v.zerkin@iaea.org
henriksson@nea.fr
exfor@nea.fr