I actually think that is pretty solid variable naming. dependentVariable_flatTax_agree_wave1 isn't the worst but also the researchers are looking at this so lo

I actually think that is pretty solid variable naming. dependentVariable_flatTax_agree_wave1 isn't the worst but also the researchers are looking at this so long it makes sense for them to shorten. I think pretty vs usable code is one of the reasons researchers don't publish their code as frequently as they should. Writing a paper is already a huge time sink, then having the need to clean up variable names, comment, all of that stuff would be great but they also are trying to publish in a timely fashion. No matter what, I'm not really agreeing or disagreeing with you, just a thought. I do agree with you though, I am glad there is more and more of a trend to publish everything involved in the research process.