Crystallographic Information File  

IUCrが提唱する化合物などの表記形式ですが、拡張可能なためいろいろ応用されている、はず。なお、CIFはCrystallographic Information Frameworkの略称でもあるそうです。

The acronym CIF is used both for the Crystallographic Information File, the data exchange standard file format of Hall, Allen & Brown (1991) (see Documentation), and for the Crystallographic Information Framework, a broader system of exchange protocols based on data dictionaries and relational rules expressible in different machine-readable manifestations, including, but not restricted to, Crystallographic Information File and XML.