Bureau of Competition Production Guide
Getting Started
Protocols for All Submissions
Before processing documents in response to a formal request, please note: The following protocols apply to ALL formats submitted to the Bureau of Competition. The Bureau has additional requirements pertaining to metadata, format, etc., for certain types of documents. See Preparing Collections for details.
Concordance Version and Load Files
The Bureau of Competition uses LexisNexis® Concordance® 10.011. With the production, you must submit:
- an image load file containing a line for every image file in the production, and
- a delimited data load file containing a line for every document in the production.
Virus Scanning
All electronic documents and production media shall be scanned and free of viruses prior to shipping to the Bureau. The Bureau will request replacement for any infected media, which may affect the timing of your compliance with the Bureau’s request.
Extracted Text / OCR
Submit text:
- as document-level text files,
- named for the beginning Bates number, and
- organized into a folder separate from images.
We prefer not to receive Unicode text files unless absolutely necessary.
Deduplication
You must have the approval of the Bureau representative to globally de-dupe or to apply email threading. You do not need prior Bureau approval to deduplicate within a custodian’s document set.
Labeling & Numbering Files
For image file names, bates numbers and document identification numbers (Doc IDs), use a consistent number of numerals to prevent issues with image display, using leading zeros where necessary. Do not use a space to separate the prefix from numbers.
Acceptable formats (as long as you are consistent)
- ABC-0001
- ABC0001
Unacceptable format
- ABC 0001
Recommended Delimiters
We strongly recommend using these delimiters in delimited data load files:
Description Symbol ASCII Character Field Separator 20 Quote Character Þ 254 Newline ® 174 Mulitple Field Entries ; 059
Image Files
We accept image files that are:
- Black and White: 300 DPI, Group IV Tiff
- Color: Jpeg files or PDF files, submitted as linked native file
Date & Time Format
Submit date and time data in separate fields so Concordance can load it.