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Best Practices for Software Engineering

In this exemplar we focus on best practices for software engineering in the context of scientific research. These practices are essential for ensuring that code is maintainable, reproducible, and collaborative.

The best practices included are key for producing high-quality code that can be easily shared and understood by others. Importantly, they also ensure analysis are reproducible and can be easily adapted for future research.

Best Practices Included in this Exemplar

  • Version control (git)
  • Virtual environments (e.g. conda, venv)
  • Code modularity (e.g. functions, classes)
  • Code documentation (e.g. docstrings, comments)
  • Code style (e.g. PEP 8 for Python)
  • Code testing
  • Use of continuous integration (pre-commit, ruff) (?)