Preparing and Submitting Tabular Data

The CDS and other astronomical data centers are storing and distributing the astronomical data to promote their usage primarily by professional astronomers. In order to ensure the scientific quality of the data, we therefore require that the data are related to a publication in a refereed journal, either as tables or catalogues actually published, or as a paper describing the data and their context.

In order to facilitate the usability of the data, and to allow their processing by the data centers, we require that:

1. the data are described accurately enough to allow an unambiguous interpretation of the data, as well as a comprehension of the context in which the data were acquired and/or processed; a single ascii file, named ReadMe, is designed for this role.

2. the d