RDF serialization is the process of writing down RDF graphs into a machine-readable format. RDF formats mainly differ in the concrete syntax to serialize RDF statements (called “triples”) and how to group or nest a set of statements, influencing the amount of storage space and bandwidth required for preserving and exchanging such data.

These differences can be rather marginal for small RDF graphs, where the selection of a particular format is mostly driven by user preferences, the set of tools managing the RDF format, and the interoperability with other applications. In contrast, choosing an adequate serialization format can affect the overall performance and present important scalability issues when managing Big Semantic Data collections.

J. Fernández, M.A. Martínez-Prieto, RDF Serialization and Archival, In: Sakr S., Zomaya A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Big Data Technologies. Springer, Cham (2018)