  Many data science students and practitioners don't see the value in making
time to learn and adopt good coding practices as long as the code "works".
However, code standards are an important part of modern data science practice,
and they play an essential role in the development of data acumen. Good coding
practices lead to more reliable code and save more time than they cost, making
them important even for beginners. We believe that principled coding is vital
for quality data science practice. To effectively instill these practices
within academic programs, instructors and programs need to begin establishing
these practices early, to reinforce them often, and to hold themselves to a
higher standard while guiding students. We describe key aspects of good coding
practices for data science, illustrating with examples in R and in Python,
though similar standards are applicable to other software environments.
Practical coding guidelines are organized into a top ten list.
