Peer Review History

Original SubmissionApril 24, 2025

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: 155027_1_rebuttal_3364393_sv4f8c.pdf
Decision Letter - Ilya Ioshikhes, Editor

PCOMPBIOL-D-25-00805

Sparse deconvolution of cell type medleys in spatial transcriptomics

PLOS Computational Biology

Dear Dr. Sogunmez Erdogan,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS Computational Biology. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS Computational Biology's publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript within 30 days Jul 15 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at ploscompbiol@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pcompbiol/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Ilya Ioshikhes

Section Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

Ilya Ioshikhes

Section Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Authors:

Please note here if the review is uploaded as an attachment.

Reviewer #1: Thank the authors for addressing my comments!

Reviewer #2: Dear authors,

Many thanks for the updated draft. I am particularly appreciative of the time and effort that you took to make these changes, and the associated responses to the review comments. I am satisfied that these modifications mitigate the concerns raised previously. I have a few further minor suggestions regarding the text, but none of these issues compromise the scientific content of the paper.

l16: Maybe split this into two sentences here '..datasets. Neglecting ... results in increased noise'

l47: 'accurately infer deconvolutions...' - deconvolutions as a noun sounds a little weird, maybe '...accurately perform deconvolution, accurately estimating underlying cell-type composition, from observations'?

l77: 'a high throughput sequencing' - remove 'a'

l75: 'targeting' sounds strange - perhaps 'intending' or 'aiming'?

l190: Maybe break the sentence into two '..boundaries. This is expecially problematic in...'

l591: It's not super clear what 'visualization' here refers to - maybe 'characterization' instead?

l603: Maybe 'The heart ventricle anatomy is depicted in yellow.'? (And similar for l613)

l812: According to HGNC, C4orf48 is now apparently called NICOL1. I'm not sure what would be more consistent in this case (maybe leaving it as what it was called in the original paper is better), but it would be good to make a note somewhere.

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Reviewer #1: None

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Revision 1

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response_to_Reviewers.pdf
Decision Letter - Ilya Ioshikhes, Editor

Dear Assist. Prof. Sogunmez Erdogan,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript 'Sparse deconvolution of cell type medleys in spatial transcriptomics' has been provisionally accepted for publication in PLOS Computational Biology.

Before your manuscript can be formally accepted you will need to complete some formatting changes, which you will receive in a follow up email. A member of our team will be in touch with a set of requests.

Please note that your manuscript will not be scheduled for publication until you have made the required changes, so a swift response is appreciated.

IMPORTANT: The editorial review process is now complete. PLOS will only permit corrections to spelling, formatting or significant scientific errors from this point onwards. Requests for major changes, or any which affect the scientific understanding of your work, will cause delays to the publication date of your manuscript.

Should you, your institution's press office or the journal office choose to press release your paper, you will automatically be opted out of early publication. We ask that you notify us now if you or your institution is planning to press release the article. All press must be co-ordinated with PLOS.

Thank you again for supporting Open Access publishing; we are looking forward to publishing your work in PLOS Computational Biology. 

Best regards,

Ilya Ioshikhes

Section Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

Ilya Ioshikhes

Section Editor

PLOS Computational Biology

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Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Ilya Ioshikhes, Editor

PCOMPBIOL-D-25-00805R1

Sparse deconvolution of cell type medleys in spatial transcriptomics

Dear Dr Sogunmez Erdogan,

I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been formally accepted for publication in PLOS Computational Biology. Your manuscript is now with our production department and you will be notified of the publication date in due course.

The corresponding author will soon be receiving a typeset proof for review, to ensure errors have not been introduced during production. Please review the PDF proof of your manuscript carefully, as this is the last chance to correct any errors. Please note that major changes, or those which affect the scientific understanding of the work, will likely cause delays to the publication date of your manuscript.

Soon after your final files are uploaded, unless you have opted out, the early version of your manuscript will be published online. The date of the early version will be your article's publication date. The final article will be published to the same URL, and all versions of the paper will be accessible to readers.

Thank you again for supporting PLOS Computational Biology and open-access publishing. We are looking forward to publishing your work!

With kind regards,

Judit Kozma

PLOS Computational Biology | Carlyle House, Carlyle Road, Cambridge CB4 3DN | United Kingdom ploscompbiol@plos.org | Phone +44 (0) 1223-442824 | ploscompbiol.org | @PLOSCompBiol

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