This page documents tools and practices that we consider "sensible defaults." Our goal is to help novices pick something and get started. If you feel the urge to argue with any of these recommendations, you're advanced enough that you don't need them.
Research Computing
Programming language
Use what your friends use. Most practitioners in your discipline have converged on one language and created libraries that deal with their most common use cases (common research computing languages include R, Python, Matlab, and Stata, but your field might use something else).
If you don't have colleagues who program, Python
Operating System
If there is discipline-specific software that only runs on one operating system, use that operating system
Otherwise, MacOS
Version control
Git
Spreadsheet program
Excel
Database
SQLite
If multiple users or processes have to write to the database at the same time, PostgreSQL
Data Management
Data file format
For tabular data, comma-delimited text files (.csv)
For unstructured text data, plain text (.txt)
Documentation format
If you are collaborating with programmers, Markdown (.md)
If you are collaborating with non-programmers, Word (.docx)
Paper and reference management
Zotero
Data repository
Dryad
If you have sensitve data, ICPSR
