Ten simple rules for building a collaborative coding culture

OverviewProgramming is quickly becoming an integral part of many biology labs.However, with limited formal training of their own, few researchers know how to onboard new programmers and encourage the growth of computing skills.Here, we integrate observations from our own experiences with interviews of more than 25 researchers across career stages to identify barriers and supports to developing programming skills in the lab.We then turn these insights into ten concrete recommendations for research group leaders, especially those who conduct research without a computational focus.These recommendations include holding coding office hours, code review processes, and discussions around generative AI.Ultimately, we believe that such practices can empower labs to produce more accessible, efficient, and reproducible research code bases.