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closeComment from PLoS ONE
Posted by PLOS_ONE_Group on 24 Jan 2011 at 16:07 GMT
Following the publication of this article, it has been brought to our attention that the Academic Editor Dr Kleinschnitz and the authors were affiliated at the same institution at the time at which the peer review took place, and also that Dr Kleinschnitz had collaborated with some of the authors on different projects and publications.
In line with the PLoS ONE competing interests policy (http://www.plosone.org/st...), we consider this as a potential conflict of interest. Dr Kleinschnitz was invited by PLoS ONE to act as Academic Editor for this manuscript, and we acknowledge that the journal should not have approached him to handle this manuscript.
We have therefore asked Section Editor Derya Unutmaz to carefully evaluate the peer review process of this article. Dr Unutmaz has confirmed that he is satisfied that the peer review process and the decision for publication are adequate. We are therefore content that the review process was handled correctly by Dr Kleinschnitz, and that his editorial evaluation and decision on the article were not affected by his relationship with the authors.