Is it possible to know whether a textfile, e.g. in XML format, has been edited or tampered with over time?

The context to my question follows: 

I am a scientist in industry using a technology called 'mass spectrometry (MS)'.  MS is an analytical technique used, e.g. in forensic analysis to determine whether a particular compound is present in a sample (e.g. drug of abuse in blood or urine).

Mass spec. datafiles are usually stored in flat-file format to the instrument vendor's private binary specification - their software can process it, but nothing else can. However, open standards for MS data exist, and most vendors support export to at least one open specification. These open standards are mainly XML based these days (eg mzML) and allow processing with open source applications, and also allow long-term storage (> 10 years) of the data in a format that doesn't require that we maintain an archived computer and the OS (or VM) and the processing software for long periods.

The vendor binary format provides at least some security against data tampering, however the XML formats do not. Hence the issue - the open formats are very useful for providing access to data over archival timescales, but security is a problem.

The default solution would be to use cryptographic signatures. Have every technician generate a PGP keypair, publishing the public key and keeping the private key secure. 

When a technician made an analysis, they sign the result file with their private key. Now anyone who wants to verify the file can check the signature using the public key of the technician. When anyone changes the file, the signature won't be correct anymore.

Security consideration: Should any private key of a technician get known to someone else, that person can change the files and also change the signature to one which will be valid. This problem can be mitigated by having multiple persons sign each result file. An attacker would require all keys to replace all signatures with valid ones.

Alternative low-tech solution: Print out each result file, have the technician sign it the old-school way (with a pen) and deposit the file in a physically secure archive.

By the way: Do not assume that the vendor-specific binary format provides any more security against tampering than XML does. Just because you can't read and edit it when you open it with a text editor doesn't mean nobody else can reverse-engineer the format and build an editor for it.
