Peer code review: Streamlining, standardizing, and improving Stata code

Ankriti Singh and Maria Ruth Jones
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Ankriti Singh: The World Bank
Maria Ruth Jones: The World Bank

2025 Stata Conference from Stata Users Group

Abstract: As empirical research grows in scale and complexity, reproducibility has become critical. Many journals now mandate the submission of code, yet researchers often lack training in writing structured, readable, and reusable code. This leads to inefficiencies, verification delays, and costly revisions. This presentation shares the authors' experience implementing regular peer code review in a large research institution. Participants exchange, run, and provide feedback on each other’s code in progress, using structured checklists to promote consistency. Standardized feedback helps identify common coding issues and develop targeted training and tools. This presentation discusses the motivation behind peer code review, focusing on its impact on Stata code quality, error detection, reproducibility, and collaboration. We highlight how it fosters a culture of continuous improvement, helping Stata practitioners enhance their coding practices from the start, rather than retrofitting for reproducibility at the end.

Date: 2025-08-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sog
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boc:usug25:16

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