PONE-D-20-17959

Quantity and quality: Normative open-access neuroimaging databases

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Isherwood,

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Zhaolin Chen

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear authors,

Apologise for the delay in processing your paper. We have tried to reach one review for their comments however the reviewer is not responding to our requests over the past month or so. To proceed your paper, I have one reviewer's report, and I have read the paper my self and would like to provide two comments: (i) I recommend you to clearly state the need for SNR and CNR metrics in these datasets. You mentioned briefly in the introduction section that cortical surface mapping is dependent on SNR and CNR, however I think you need to cite references and review thoroughly any analysis bias has been induced due to SNR and CNR variations in the literature. (ii) there are many ways to calculate SNR and CNR, I recommend your discuss this in your discussion section.

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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: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: No

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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

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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

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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 authors have presented an analysis on the SNR and CNR for 20 publically available MRI databases and also compared the age related changes in SNR and CNR. The manuscript is organized well and is informative. Following are some concerns/comments:

Major:

1. Some of the databases have large number of images, and thus taking 5 sample randomly may not be a true reflection of the whole population. Can authors randomly take separate 5 samples from each database (where available) and check if the same analysis still holds?

2. It appears that the SNR was calculated using 3x3x3 voxel only? If only a single ROI of 3x3x3 was used for calculation then it is prone to large errors due to a few pixels offset in the location of the ROI. A better estimate might be to perform a moving window averaging of 3x3x3 mask over a larger ROI (CC, CN)

Minor:

1. Fig. 1, please indicate CC, RCN, LCN regions PRISMAin the images.

2. PRISMA abbreviation?

3. It might be better to perform separate analysis of scan time vs SNR for 3T and 7T. Since SNR depends on both the field strength and scan time.

4. Which data supports the following line in the conclusion.

“The benefit of large-scale imaging databases for creating general maps of cortical organization and providing both phenotypic and genetic comparisons across populations is clear.”

5. Another line in conclusion “In particular for the human subcortex ….. does not provide the required resolution and SNR for small nuclei.” There was no analysis on the resolution in this study?

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Reviewer #1: No

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Quantity and quality: Normative open-access neuroimaging databases

PONE-D-20-17959R1

Dear Dr. Isherwood,

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,

Zhaolin Chen

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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

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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

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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

**********

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)

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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