The article discusses the problem of an electronic scientific document existence in the electronic environment. The study objective is to overview document formats (HTML, PDF, CDF), shows their advantages and disadvantages. The paper describes 1) widely used formats: HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) and PDF (Portable Document Format); 2) characterizes the format of future - CDF (Computable Document Format); formats of data descriptions (in particular, scientific) on the Resource Description Framework standard containing Linked Open Data. It takes advantages of a traditional scientific document existence in e-form. They are the following: including text and non-textual elements (3D images, sound); performing calculations and make changes directly in a document file; hyperlinking to the Internet space, or to other files located on a computer locally; creating open related scientific data, discussing the document in e-science space in real time regime. An electronic scientific document is a modern means of scientific communication incorporated into the developing digital scientific infrastructure.