Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJuly 25, 2019
Decision Letter - Zafar Ghouri, Editor

[EXSCINDED]

PONE-D-19-20451

Coherent Poly Propagation Materials with 3-Dimensional Photonic Control over Visible Light

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Stem,

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 the points raised during the review process.

We would appreciate receiving your revised manuscript by Oct 20 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,

Zafar Ghouri

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

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

1. Please provide further details in your materials and methods section about the source of the opal samples, such that similar samples could be obtained by future researchers - this is in line with our reproducibility criterion for publishing, see https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/criteria-for-publication#loc-3. Thank you for your attention to this query.

2. Thank you for inlcuding your competing interests statement; "The authors have declared that no competing interests exist."

We note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company:Complete Consulting Services, LLC.

  1. Please provide an amended Funding Statement declaring this commercial affiliation, as well as a statement regarding the Role of Funders in your study. If the funding organization did not play a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript and only provided financial support in the form of authors' salaries and/or research materials, please review your statements relating to the author contributions, and ensure you have specifically and accurately indicated the role(s) that these authors had in your study. You can update author roles in the Author Contributions section of the online submission form.

Please also include the following statement within your amended Funding Statement.

“The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [insert relevant initials], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.”

If your commercial affiliation did play a role in your study, please state and explain this role within your updated Funding Statement.

2. Please also provide an updated Competing Interests Statement declaring this commercial affiliation along with any other relevant declarations relating to employment, consultancy, patents, products in development, or marketed products, etc.  

Within your Competing Interests Statement, please confirm that this commercial affiliation does not alter your adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials by including the following statement: "This does not alter our adherence to  PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.” (as detailed online in our guide for authors http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competing-interests) . If this adherence statement is not accurate and  there are restrictions on sharing of data and/or materials, please state these. Please note that we cannot proceed with consideration of your article until this information has been declared.

Please include both an updated Funding Statement and Competing Interests Statement in your cover letter. We will change the online submission form on your behalf.

Please know it is PLOS ONE policy for corresponding authors to declare, on behalf of all authors, all potential competing interests for the purposes of transparency. PLOS defines a competing interest as anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of research or non-research articles submitted to one of the journals. Competing interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Competing interests can arise in relationship to an organization or another person. Please follow this link to our website for more details on competing interests: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competing-interests

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Dear Michelle,

The reviewers has commented on your manuscript , PONE-D-19-20451 "Coherent Poly Propagation Materials with 3-Dimensional Photonic Control over Visible Light " and indicated that it is suitable for publication in PLOSE ONE after minor revision. I invite you to revise and resubmit you manuscript.

Below, please find the comments for your perusal.

With kind regards,

Zafar Khan Ghouri, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOSE ONE

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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: Yes

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: In this article (PONE-D-19-20451) the author studied in detail the coherent poly propagation effect over visible light by using Opal a nanosized silicate shapers. The study appears to be complete and the author has mentioned all the necessary arguments to satisfy the finding. Overall, this article appears interesting and comprehensive enough to be published in PLOS ONE. After addressing the following issue accept the manuscript.

The details of comments on this work are listed below:

1. Graphical figures that are shown in the manuscript looks like the cut paste of results generated by the analysis equipment which is not a good representation of data. These analysis equipment’s for example also can give the results is numerical data form which can be easily redrawn on other graphical software’s that are available like MS EXCEL. All the graphical data should be redrawn in Origin/ MS EXCEL software by the data generated by each figure.

2. Rearrange your supporting information and add a table of content for the supporting information.

Reviewer #2: 1. How the findings in the article shows advances in the field which will make difference with respect to scientific work already conducted previously.

2. Thermal conductivity method and procedure should be included in the article.

**********

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.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Review Comments-PONE-D-19-20451.docx
Revision 1

Dear Dr. Ghouri,

I am happy to submit the attached revised manuscript, “Coherent Poly Propagation Materials with 3-Dimensional Photonic Control over Visible Light”, to PLOS ONE for publication consideration as a research article.

As requested, details on the sources of the specimens were included in the materials and methods section. Also, a full response to the reviewers’ comments is attached.

Regarding funding, the only role of Complete Consulting Services, LLC was the provision of access to research equipment. There was no salary or any other considerations to the author as this is a very small research lab in which I serve an unpaid role.

Amended Funding Statement: Complete Consulting Services, LLC. provided support in the form of access to research equipment for the author (MRS) with no other financial or material contributions or considerations. The funder provided support in the form of access to research equipment only, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of the author is articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.

No amendments to Competing Interests or Author Contributions Statements are needed. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

During the process of making adjustments for formatting and per the recommendations of the reviewers, I corrected reference 4 to reflect a more recent work by the same author.

Thank you for helping me through this process. Please let me know if I missed anything.

Response to Reviewers

Reviewer #1:

1. Graphical figures that are shown in the manuscript looks like the cut paste of results generated by the analysis equipment which is not a good representation of data. These analysis equipment’s for example also can give the results is numerical data form which can be easily redrawn on other graphical software’s that are available like MS EXCEL. All the graphical data should be redrawn in Origin/ MS EXCEL software by the data generated by each figure.

Done. I gathered the raw spectrophotometric data in Excel format and generated an Excel graph of each specimen at the bottom of each specimen’s data. I included the Excel data in the supplementary section. Since the Excel graphs did not look as presentable, I used improved originals. I generated the original images via a better method and have replaced the lesser quality ones.

2. Rearrange your supporting information and add a table of content for the supporting information.

Done. I rearranged the supplementary file and added a table of contents.

Reviewer #2:

1. How the findings in the article shows advances in the field which will make difference with respect to scientific work already conducted previously.

Done. The introduction has been expanded to address this topic in better detail.

2. Thermal conductivity method and procedure should be included in the article.

Done. Thermal conductivity method, definition and procedure were added/expanded.

My sincere appreciation to each reviewer for generously giving their time and expertise to help improve my research manuscript. Thank you for your kind professionalism.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: ResponseToReviewers.doc
Decision Letter - Zafar Ghouri, Editor

Coherent Poly Propagation Materials with 3-Dimensional Photonic Control over Visible Light

PONE-D-19-20451R1

Dear Dr. Stem,

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,

Zafar Ghouri

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

All the concerns have been addressed. Revised Manuscript has been accepted without further modification.

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 #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 #2: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #2: 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 #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 #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 #2: The author has successfully addressed the comments. Please accept the article for publication in the journal.

**********

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 #2: Yes: CAU

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Zafar Ghouri, Editor

PONE-D-19-20451R1

Coherent Poly Propagation Materials with 3-Dimensional Photonic Control over Visible Light

Dear Dr. Stem:

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

Dr. Zafar Ghouri

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .