PONE-D-20-32580

Information Retrieval Interfaces in Virtual Reality - A Scoping Review Focused on Current Generation Technology

PLOS ONE

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M. Usman Ashraf, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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: The author provided a solid study on interactive information retrieval systam in Virtual Reality following the announcement and release of the current generation hardware system. It pre-designed four questions, covering the prototype/concepts, user interaction, retrieval features, and synthesis/display. After analysis a mount of related works, it present solid study results in corresponding to those questions. The data itself is solid and comprehensive. Moreover, it provided all the annotated data in the attachment. Consequently, I prefer to accept it for publication.

Reviewer #2: This article is an analysis of the state of the art related to Information Retrieval Interfaces in Virtual Reality. The manuscript is well organized and comprehensively described and with adequate references. In a high level, the paper tries to answer to five questions. The reviewer appreciates the effort and time spent for collecting and reviewing literature on the use of VR IR systems. However, the reviewer thinks the paper should be improved:

- In the abstract mentioning just the Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science could be problematic because it is not clear why IEEE and ACM where not included.

- Related to the keywords, other terms could be incorporated, like “Head Mounted Display”

- The introduction needs to focus on the topic and goals/contribution of present research. I think that explaining the concept and history of “Virtual Reality” is too much. This is not a survey of general VR technology.

- In Methods: More of information about PRISMA should be included. Please specify what it represents and how it benefits this study. What is the reason for including student theses?

- In the Synthesis of results section review also the challenges and their implications in using VR IR systems compared to traditional (non-VR) IR systems.

- The English language and style is good and clear to be understood.

Regards

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Information Retrieval Interfaces in Virtual Reality - A Scoping Review Focused on Current Generation Technology

PONE-D-20-32580R1

Dear Dr. Schleuβinger,

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.

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Kind regards,

M. Usman Ashraf, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE