Peer Review History

Original SubmissionAugust 3, 2019
Decision Letter - Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Editor

[EXSCINDED]

PONE-D-19-21887

The cost-effectiveness of controlling cervical cancer using a new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine among school-aged girls in Australia

PLOS ONE

Dear Mr. Mahumud,

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

We would appreciate receiving your revised manuscript by Oct 13 2019 11:59PM. When you are ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter.

To enhance the reproducibility of your results, we recommend that if applicable you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io, where a protocol can be assigned its own identifier (DOI) such that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). This letter should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. This file should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. This file should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Manuscript'.

Please note while forming your response, if your article is accepted, you may have the opportunity to make the peer review history publicly available. The record will include editor decision letters (with reviews) and your responses to reviewer comments. If eligible, we will contact you to opt in or out.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

1. When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

http://www.journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and http://www.journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2. Please clearly list in your methods section or as supporting information,  all the data sources and corresponding references used in this study. Additionally, if you collected any data that were not obtained from previously published research, provide details as to where these data are from and how they were collected.

3. We ask that you please use a more technically clear term to replace "sexual debut" as this not well defined in the manuscript and could be misinterpreted.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I found the work interesting and very detailed. Overall it was quite comprehensive, evaluating many parameters that may affect cost-effectiveness studies. My only suggestion concerns the quality of the figures, I believe they could improve a little more.

Reviewer #2: The objective of this study was to examine the cost-effectiveness of adding a 9vHPV vaccine to the national immunization schedule in Australia across three different delivery strategies. The study is very interesting and important. The methods and results are described in detail. The conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data. The article is presented in an intelligible fashion.

I would like make some observations:

1- In the objectives (page 5, line 26) the term “DALYs” is used by first time, please describe this acronym in this moment.

2- In the results (Page 12, line 11) the acronym “IECR” should be substituted by “ICER”?

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files to be viewed.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email us at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Revision 1

Response to Reviewer #1 comments:

Comment: I found the work interesting and very detailed. Overall it was quite comprehensive, evaluating many parameters that may affect cost-effectiveness studies. My only suggestion concerns the quality of the figures, I believe they could improve a little more.

Response: Authors express gratitude to the reviewer for their appreciation. The figures have been revised as per journal requirements. Please see the revised figures.

**************************************************************************************

Response to Reviewer #2 comments:

Comment-1:

The objective of this study was to examine the cost-effectiveness of adding a 9vHPV vaccine to the national immunization schedule in Australia across three different delivery strategies. The study is very interesting and important. The methods and results are described in detail. The conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data. The article is presented in an intelligible fashion.

Response: Authors express gratitude to the reviewer for their appreciation.

Comment-2: I would like make some observations: In the objectives (page 5, line 26) the term “DALYs” is used by first time, please describe this acronym in this moment.

Response: The text has been revised now by describing the term DALY (i.e., disability adjusted-life years) as advised by the reviewer. Please see page 6 (lines 7-8).

Comment-3: In the results (Page 12, line 11) the acronym “IECR” should be substituted by “ICER”?

Response: Authors are thankful to the reviewer for raising the issue. We have corrected the acronym (i.e., ICER). Please see page 12 (line-26).

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Editor

PONE-D-19-21887R1

The cost-effectiveness of controlling cervical cancer using a new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine among school-aged girls in Australia

PLOS ONE

Dear Mr. Mahumud,

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

We would appreciate receiving your revised manuscript by Nov 07 2019 11:59PM. When you are ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter.

To enhance the reproducibility of your results, we recommend that if applicable you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io, where a protocol can be assigned its own identifier (DOI) such that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). This letter should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. This file should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. This file should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Manuscript'.

Please note while forming your response, if your article is accepted, you may have the opportunity to make the peer review history publicly available. The record will include editor decision letters (with reviews) and your responses to reviewer comments. If eligible, we will contact you to opt in or out.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: After reviewing the work again, I noticed small issues that can be easily fixed:

1- On p. 2, line 7 and p. 3, line 23, please replace genotype by type, it is the most correct term today to refer to HPV types.

2- On p. 5, line 12, replace the term nonavalent-HPV vaccine with the abbreviation (9vHPV) that has been previously used.

3 - On p. 7, line 30, describe the term PBAC.

4 - On p. 8, line 6 describe the term WTP.

5 - On p. 8, line 23 describe the term NIP.

6 - On p. 16, line 20, separate the words "costper".

7 - On p. 18, line 5, separate the words "effectiveamong".

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files to be viewed.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email us at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Revision 2

Response to the editor’s and reviewer’s comments

Date: 23 September 2019

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript entitled “The cost-effectiveness of controlling cervical cancer using a new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine among school-aged girls in Australia”. We found the reviewers’ comments/feedback very helpful in improving the manuscript and we have revised the manuscript accordingly. Please find attached the revised manuscript. We declare that all authors have no conflicts of interest. The manuscript has not been published in any other journal. Our point-by-point comments on the suggested revisions are below.

Best regards,

Rashidul Alam Mahumud (corresponding author)

PhD Candidate, MPH, MSc

On behalf of all of the co-authors

Health Economics Research,

Health Systems and Population Studies Division,

International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b),

Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh.

Response to Reviewer #1 comments:

Comment 1. All comments have been addressed. After reviewing the work again, I noticed small issues that can be easily fixed:

Response: We found the reviewers’ comments/feedback very helpful in improving the manuscript and we have revised the manuscript accordingly (please see the revised manuscript).

Comment 2. On p. 2, line 7 and p. 3, line 23, please replace genotype by type, it is the most correct term today to refer to HPV types.

Response: Thank you for your valuable concerns. The text has been corrected now accordingly (please see on page 2 (line-7) and page 3 (line-23)).

Comment 3. On p. 5, line 12, replace the term nonavalent-HPV vaccine with the abbreviation (9vHPV) that has been previously used.

Response: The term “nonavalent-HPV vaccine” has been replaced by “9vHPV” (please see on page 5, line-12).

Comment 4. On p. 7, line 30, describe the term PBAC.

Response: The text has been revised by describing the term PBAC as defined “Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee” (please see on page 7, lines-28-29).

Comment 5. On p. 8, line 6 describe the term WTP.

Response: The term WTP has been explained as “Willingness-to-pay” (please see page on 8, lines-4-5).

Comment 6. On p. 8, line 23 describe the term NIP.

Response: The term NIP has been described as “national immunisation program” (please see on page 8, line-21).

Comment 7. On p. 16, line 20, separate the words "costper".

Response: Corrected. Please see on page 16, line-19-20.

Comment 8. On p. 18, line 5, separate the words "effectiveamong".

Response: Corrected. Please see on page 18 (line 5).

Response to Reviewer #2 comments:

Comment-1: All comments have been addressed

Response: Authors express gratitude to the reviewer for their appreciation.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Editor

The cost-effectiveness of controlling cervical cancer using a new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine among school-aged girls in Australia

PONE-D-19-21887R2

Dear Dr. Mahumud,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication.

Shortly after the formal acceptance letter is sent, an invoice for payment will follow. To ensure an efficient production and billing process, please log into Editorial Manager at https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the "Update My Information" link at the top of the page, and update your user information. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to enable them to help maximize its impact. If they will be preparing press materials for this manuscript, you must inform our press team as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

With kind regards,

Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro, Editor

PONE-D-19-21887R2

The cost-effectiveness of controlling cervical cancer using a new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine among school-aged girls in Australia

Dear Dr. Mahumud:

I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper at this point, to enable them to help maximize its impact. If they will be preparing press materials for this manuscript, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

For any other questions or concerns, please email plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE.

With kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Professor Marcia Edilaine Lopes Consolaro

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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