diff --git a/doc/USER_GUIDE b/doc/USER_GUIDE
index 9957fec..8581d3e 100755
--- a/doc/USER_GUIDE
+++ b/doc/USER_GUIDE
@@ -23,10 +23,10 @@ Index:
 *******************
 * 1.  DESCRIPTION *
 *******************
-IOR can be used for testing performance of parallel file systems using various 
-interfaces and access patterns.  IOR uses MPI for process synchronization.  
-IOR version 2 is a complete rewrite of the original IOR (Interleaved-Or-Random) 
-version 1 code.  
+IOR can be used for testing performance of parallel file systems using various
+interfaces and access patterns.  IOR uses MPI for process synchronization.
+IOR version 2 is a complete rewrite of the original IOR (Interleaved-Or-Random)
+version 1 code.
 
 
 ******************
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Two ways to run IOR:
     E.g., to execute:  IOR -w -r -o filename
     This performs a write and a read to the file 'filename'.
 
-  * Command line with scripts -- any arguments on the command line will 
+  * Command line with scripts -- any arguments on the command line will
     establish the default for the test run, but a script may be used in
     conjunction with this for varying specific tests during an execution of the
     code.
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ GENERAL:
                            S3_EMC, or NCMPI, depending on test [POSIX]
 
   * testFile             - name of the output file [testFile]
-                           NOTE: with filePerProc set, the tasks can round 
+                           NOTE: with filePerProc set, the tasks can round
                                  robin across multiple file names '-o S@S@S'
 
   * hintsFileName        - name of the hints file []
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ GENERAL:
                                     data, this option measures the amount of
                                     data moved in a fixed amount of time.  The
                                     objective is to prevent tasks slow to
-                                    complete from skewing the performance. 
+                                    complete from skewing the performance.
                                   * setting this to zero (0) unsets this option
                                   * this option is incompatible w/data checking
 
@@ -280,7 +280,8 @@ GENERAL:
   * summaryAlways        - Always print the long summary for each test.
                            Useful for long runs that may be interrupted, preventing
                            the final long summary for ALL tests to be printed.
-
+  * summaryFile=File     - Output the summary to the file instead on stdout/stderr.
+  * summaryFormat=FMT    - Choose the output format -- default, JSON, CSV
 
 POSIX-ONLY:
 ===========
@@ -319,7 +320,7 @@ HDF5-ONLY:
                            NOTE: default IOR creates a dataset the size of
                                  numTasks * blockSize to be accessed by all
                                  tasks
- 
+
   * noFill               - no pre-filling of data in HDF5 file creation [0=FALSE]
 
   * setAlignment         - HDF5 alignment in bytes (e.g.: 8, 4k, 2m, 1g) [1]
@@ -483,8 +484,8 @@ zip, gzip, and bzip.
 
 2) gzip: For gzipped files, a transfer size of 1k is sufficient.
 
-3) bzip2: For bziped files a transfer size of 1k is insufficient (~50% compressed).  
-   To avoid compression a transfer size of greater than the bzip block size is required 
+3) bzip2: For bziped files a transfer size of 1k is insufficient (~50% compressed).
+   To avoid compression a transfer size of greater than the bzip block size is required
    (default = 900KB). I suggest a transfer size of greather than 1MB to avoid bzip2 compression.
 
 Be aware of the block size your compression algorithm will look at, and adjust the transfer size
@@ -508,9 +509,9 @@ HOW DO I PERFORM MULTIPLE DATA CHECKS ON AN EXISTING FILE?
   and -r implied using both.  This semantic has been subsequently altered to be
   omitting -w, -r, -W, and -R implied using both -w and -r.)
 
-  If you're running new tests to create a file and want repeat data checking on 
-  this file multiple times, there is an undocumented option for this.  It's -O 
-  multiReRead=1, and you'd need to have an IOR version compiled with the 
+  If you're running new tests to create a file and want repeat data checking on
+  this file multiple times, there is an undocumented option for this.  It's -O
+  multiReRead=1, and you'd need to have an IOR version compiled with the
   USE_UNDOC_OPT=1 (in iordef.h).  The command line would look like this:
 
   IOR -k -E -w -W -i 5 -o file -O multiReRead=1
@@ -586,7 +587,7 @@ HOW DO I USE STONEWALLING?
   actually reading the same amount from disk in the allotted time, but they
   are also reading the cached data from the previous test each time to get the
   increased performance.  Setting -D high enough so that the cache is
-  overfilled will prevent this.  
+  overfilled will prevent this.
 
 
 HOW DO I BYPASS CACHING WHEN READING BACK A FILE I'VE JUST WRITTEN?
diff --git a/src/ior.c b/src/ior.c
index bcc1266..7c574ff 100755
--- a/src/ior.c
+++ b/src/ior.c
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ IOR_test_t * ior_run(int argc, char **argv, MPI_Comm world_com, FILE * world_out
         for (tptr = tests_head; tptr != NULL; tptr = tptr->next) {
                 totalErrorCount = 0;
                 verbose = tptr->params.verbose;
+                tptr->params.testComm = world_com;
                 if (rank == 0 && verbose >= VERBOSE_0) {
                         ShowTestInfo(&tptr->params);
                 }
@@ -125,6 +126,7 @@ int ior_main(int argc, char **argv)
     int i;
     IOR_test_t *tests_head;
     IOR_test_t *tptr;
+
     out_logfile = stdout;
 
     /*
@@ -153,6 +155,7 @@ int ior_main(int argc, char **argv)
     MPI_CHECK(MPI_Comm_size(mpi_comm_world, &numTasksWorld),
               "cannot get number of tasks");
     MPI_CHECK(MPI_Comm_rank(mpi_comm_world, &rank), "cannot get rank");
+
     PrintEarlyHeader();
 
     /* set error-handling */
@@ -230,6 +233,8 @@ int ior_main(int argc, char **argv)
     aws_cleanup();
   #endif
 
+    fflush(out_logfile);
+
     return totalErrorCount;
 }
 
@@ -1668,7 +1673,6 @@ static void PrintLongSummaryOneOperation(IOR_test_t *test, double *times, char *
         struct results *bw;
         struct results *ops;
         int reps;
-
         if (rank != 0 || verbose < VERBOSE_0)
                 return;
 
@@ -1682,14 +1686,12 @@ static void PrintLongSummaryOneOperation(IOR_test_t *test, double *times, char *
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", bw->max / MEBIBYTE);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", bw->min / MEBIBYTE);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", bw->mean / MEBIBYTE);
-
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", bw->sd / MEBIBYTE);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", ops->max);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", ops->min);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", ops->mean);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.2f ", ops->sd);
-        fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.5f ",
-                mean_of_array_of_doubles(times, reps));
+        fprintf(out_logfile, "%10.5f ", mean_of_array_of_doubles(times, reps));
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%5d ", params->id);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%6d ", params->numTasks);
         fprintf(out_logfile, "%3d ", params->tasksPerNode);
@@ -1742,7 +1744,6 @@ static void PrintLongSummaryHeader()
 static void PrintLongSummaryAllTests(IOR_test_t *tests_head)
 {
         IOR_test_t *tptr;
-
         if (rank != 0 || verbose < VERBOSE_0)
                 return;
 
diff --git a/src/ior.h b/src/ior.h
index 7ee0396..bfda441 100755
--- a/src/ior.h
+++ b/src/ior.h
@@ -82,7 +82,6 @@ typedef struct IO_BUFFERS
 
 typedef struct
 {
-    FILE * out_logfile;
     char debug[MAX_STR];             /* debug info string */
     unsigned int mode;               /* file permissions */
     unsigned int openFlags;          /* open flags (see also <open>) */
diff --git a/src/iordef.h b/src/iordef.h
index f860c4f..23febd5 100755
--- a/src/iordef.h
+++ b/src/iordef.h
@@ -61,6 +61,12 @@ extern int verbose;                            /* verbose output */
 
 /*************************** D E F I N I T I O N S ****************************/
 
+enum OutputFormat_t{
+  OUTPUT_DEFAULT,
+  OUTPUT_CSV,
+  OUTPUT_JSON
+};
+
 #ifndef FALSE
 #   define FALSE           0
 #endif /* not FALSE */
diff --git a/src/parse_options.c b/src/parse_options.c
index 0ebb691..c58b735 100755
--- a/src/parse_options.c
+++ b/src/parse_options.c
@@ -170,6 +170,21 @@ void DecodeDirective(char *line, IOR_param_t *params)
         }
         if (strcasecmp(option, "api") == 0) {
                 strcpy(params->api, value);
+        } else if (strcasecmp(option, "summaryFile") == 0) {
+          out_logfile = fopen(value, "w");
+          if (out_logfile == NULL){
+            FAIL("Cannot open output file for writes!");
+          }
+        } else if (strcasecmp(option, "summaryFormat") == 0) {
+                if(strcasecmp(value, "default")){
+                  outputFormat = OUTPUT_DEFAULT;
+                }else if(strcasecmp(value, "JSON")){
+                  outputFormat = OUTPUT_JSON;
+                }else if(strcasecmp(value, "CSV")){
+                  outputFormat = OUTPUT_CSV;
+                }else{
+                  FAIL("Unknown summaryFormat");
+                }
         } else if (strcasecmp(option, "refnum") == 0) {
                 params->referenceNumber = atoi(value);
         } else if (strcasecmp(option, "debug") == 0) {
diff --git a/src/utilities.c b/src/utilities.c
index 962ccb2..a1dd25f 100755
--- a/src/utilities.c
+++ b/src/utilities.c
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ int      verbose = VERBOSE_0;        /* verbose output */
 MPI_Comm testComm;
 MPI_Comm mpi_comm_world;
 FILE * out_logfile;
+enum OutputFormat_t outputFormat;
 
 /***************************** F U N C T I O N S ******************************/
 
diff --git a/src/utilities.h b/src/utilities.h
index 0da2481..21a7dfb 100755
--- a/src/utilities.h
+++ b/src/utilities.h
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ extern int verbose;
 extern MPI_Comm testComm;
 extern MPI_Comm mpi_comm_world;
 extern FILE * out_logfile;
+extern enum OutputFormat_t outputFormat;  /* format of the output */
 
 /*
  * Try using the system's PATH_MAX, which is what realpath and such use.