I think the reproducibility and transparency movement is extremely important to ensure the general public's belief in science. I think there is an important role to play for automation in this movement. The more we automate the easier reproduction becomes. And while automation has a high upfront time cost, I'm convinced it pays off in the long run as it will make implementing those tiny edits that reviewers request so much easier. And if your co-author wants to make edits a well-automated research process makes it easy for them to find their way. On this page I put some stuff I've discovered or made over the years that allowed me to automate my research process.
I wrote a little Python program that allows you to tie together different programming languages and run your research process from beginning to end, from raw data to a submittable pdf. Rundirectory.py
I wrote a guide on how to make balance tables (e.g. Table 1 in a RCT paper) automatically, for Microsoft Word or Latex. This will save you a lot of time.
Troubleshooting For loops in Stata can be tricky. Fortunately there is an easy fix.
Also a little how-to on how you can work together with co-authors without directory-switching hassles here.