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Potential Conflict of Interest of Academic Editor

Posted by PLOS_ONE_Group on 29 Sep 2014 at 08:30 GMT

It has come to our attention that the Academic Editor who handled this manuscript, Dr Ryuichi Morishita, is affiliated at the same institution as the authors of the article.

In line with the PLOS ONE competing interests policy (http://www.plosone.org/st...), we consider this as a potential conflict of interest. Dr Morishita 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 asked an independent Academic Editor, Dr Alan Stitt, to carefully evaluate the peer review process of this article. Dr Stitt has confirmed that he is satisfied that the decision for publication was adequate.

Competing interests declared: PLOS ONE Staff
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