PONE-D-20-23187

The value of TI-RADS combined with superb microvascular imagine in distinguishing thyroid nodules: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tian,

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.

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

The authors should use Google Scholar as a search engine or to explain why particular search engines were chosen

The headline refers to both systematic review and meta-analysis while the abstract refers to systematic review alone. As this are two distinct entities, the authors should clarify which type of work is about to be done

The authors must adhere to the PRISMA protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis. This should be stated and carries out throughout the manuscript.

The authors should explain better current knowledge on regular Doppler and why it was not adopted for ACR TIRADS, and then address differences of regular Doppler and SMI

The type of studies is not well defined. Please adhere to the PRISMA protocols

How can the authors define 'without language restriction'? How do the plan to overcome this barrier in order to fully understand the articles?

Why does criteria 1 in table 1 needed? Please explain

Discussion does contain a 'will be' which will address the study's result.  Is it just the opening statement?

The value of TI-RADS combined with superb microvascular imagine in distinguishing thyroid nodules: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

PONE-D-20-23187R1

Dear Dr. Congliang Tian,

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

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Oded Cohen

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does the manuscript provide a valid rationale for the proposed study, with clearly identified and justified research questions?

The research question outlined is expected to address a valid academic problem or topic and contribute to the base of knowledge in the field.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Is the protocol technically sound and planned in a manner that will lead to a meaningful outcome and allow testing the stated hypotheses?

The manuscript should describe the methods in sufficient detail to prevent undisclosed flexibility in the experimental procedure or analysis pipeline, including sufficient outcome-neutral conditions (e.g. necessary controls, absence of floor or ceiling effects) to test the proposed hypotheses and a statistical power analysis where applicable. As there may be aspects of the methodology and analysis which can only be refined once the work is undertaken, authors should outline potential assumptions and explicitly describe what aspects of the proposed analyses, if any, are exploratory.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Is the methodology feasible and described in sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicable?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors described where all data underlying the findings will be made available when the study is complete?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception, at the time of publication. 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

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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

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above and, if applicable, provide comments about issues authors must address before this protocol can be accepted for publication. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about research or publication ethics.

You may also provide optional suggestions and comments to authors that they might find helpful in planning their study.

(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: It sounds like an interesting issue, The pattern of the blood flow in a tumor might be a tool for more precise US diagnosis. good luck

Reviewer #2: The study aims to evaluate the value of a thyroid imaging report and data system (TI-RADS) combined with SMI in distinguishing between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.

The study protocol is well written.

There authors should relate to risk of bias and dealing with missing data in the data extraction and quality assessment section.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Galit Avior

Reviewer #2: Yes: Sharon Tzelnick