Peer Review History

Original SubmissionAugust 26, 2020
Decision Letter - Jie Zhang, Editor

PONE-D-20-26064

The Shortest Duration Constrained Hidden Markov Model: Data Denoise and Forecast Optimization on the Country-Product Matrix for the Fitness-Complexity Algorithm

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zong,

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.

Please revise the paper by considering the reviewer's comments.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 02 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're 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.

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). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
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If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Jie Zhang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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: Yes

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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: This paper investigates the shortest duration constrained Hidden Markov Model, which is applied in data denoise and forecast optimization on the country-product matrix for the fitness-complexity algorithm. The structure of the article is not very clear and legibility is poor. My comments are as follows:\\\\

1) What is the contribution of this paper? The innovation points of the research are not clear.\\\\

2) Why $X_2$ in the Hidden Markov Model is different from the other parameters?\\\\

3) How to choose the value of $d$? Does it have specific meaning in the economic field?\\\\

4) Why can $d$ be set to improve the effect?\\\\

5) The symbols do not change before and after standardization in page 5 line 157.\\\\

6) Most of the pictures are not sharp enough.\\\\

7) With the proposed method in this paper, the computational complexity of the algorithm needs to be analyzed.

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Reviewer #1: 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.]

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 PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Revision 1

Thanks to your careful and valuable comments. We will explain your concerns point by point.

Reviewer #1:

Q1: What is the contribution of this paper? The innovation points of the research are not clear.\\\\

A1: The possible contributions of this paper are added in page 3, and we divide them into four different aspects. The main innovations of this paper are also added in page 3, and we divide them into two different aspects.

Q2: Why $X_2$ in the Hidden Markov Model is different from the other parameters?\\\\

A2: The $X_2$ is incorrectly capitalized, and we have corrected it in page 3 line 72.

Q3: How to choose the value of $d$? Does it have specific meaning in the economic field?\\\\

A3: The choice of this value of $d$ aims to improve the economic forecasting effect through two aspects, they are introduced in the Results. The value of $d$ has specific meaning in the economic field, the economic characteristics and implications are introduce in the Results.

Q4: Why can $d$ be set to improve the effect?\\\\

A4: The reason lies in the strong economic characteristics and implications of $d$ in economic time series data, please see in Results too.

Q5: The symbols do not change before and after standardization in page 5 line 157.\\\\

A5: The symbols after standardization are misspelled, and we have corrected them in page 5 line 157.

Q6: Most of the pictures are not sharp enough.\\\\

A6: Some pictures are modified to make them more sharp.

Q7: With the proposed method in this paper, the computational complexity of the algorithm needs to be analyzed.

A7: We briefly introduce the computational complexity of the algorithm in the Methods

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: response to reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Jie Zhang, Editor

PONE-D-20-26064R1

The Shortest Duration Constrained Hidden Markov Model: Data Denoise and Forecast Optimization on the Country-Product Matrix for the Fitness-Complexity Algorithm

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zong,

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.

Please revise the paper by considering the reviewer's comments.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 10 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're 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.

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). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Jie Zhang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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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: (No Response)

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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 #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: (No Response)

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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 #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: (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 #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.]

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 PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Report_PONE_D_20_26064R1.pdf
Revision 2

Thanks to your careful and valuable comments. We will explain your concerns point by point.

Q1: The keywords should reflect the main research areas. The two main effects of the SDC-HMM both should be involved. Please specify them clearly.

A1: The two main effects of the SDC-HMM both have been involved. The new keywords: country-product matrices; constrained Hidden Markov Model; data denoise; forecast optimization.

Q2: The introduction part is organized with order, but in order to give readers a better picture I suggest introducing more details of your approach i.e. SDC-HMM, and stressing the importance of it.

A2: We have added a detailed description of the SDC-HMM method and explained the importance of the SDC-HMM method in two aspects. First, setting a minimum duration greater than one period is conducive to making full use of data time dimension information and effectively removing abnormal data value noise. Second, setting the value of d to be greater than or equal to 2 is to fully retain the information of data time dimension and identify the change of data trend in time.

Q3: Page 13, the authors claim that “It takes about 10-20 minutes to perform the SDC-HMM algorithm of the noise reduction task in this paper by using a PC.” The computational complexity should be further discussed, for example, how is it compared with previous literature?

A3: We have further discussed the computational complexity. As most of the computation is applied in the parameters of HMM, the shortest duration constraint (SDC) only consumes a small amount of calculation. Compared with the calculation method of Tacchella et al. (2018), we provide a better noise reduction method without increasing the amount of calculation.

Q4: Figures need brief notes and so for Tables in order to indicate the readers enough information. Please add essential notes for each table.

A4: We have added brief but essential notes to all the figures and tables.

Q5: The discussion part should be further improved. The key findings, importance and limitations should be further discussed.

A5: The key findings, importance and limitations have been further discussed in the discussion part. we find that the SDC-HMM excels at removing abnormal high value (low value) noise in the stationary period, abnormal low value (high value) noise in the rising period and abnormal high value (low value) noise in the descending period, and in identifying the long-term change point of the data in low-to-high and high-to-low long-term trends, achieving obvious noise reduction. The limitation is for the shortest duration constraint is defined as a constant 2, which could be different in other economic fields.

Q6: Please add a full stop or comma (if the sentence is not finished) symbol behind each equation.

A6: A full stop or comma symbol has been added behind each equation, in which the sentence is not finished.

Misprints

Q1: Page 13, Footnote 1, “mmodity” should be “Commodity”.

A1: The misprint has been corrected.

Q2: Page 13, Footnote 2, “Band” should be “Bank”.

A2: The misprint has been corrected.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Jie Zhang, Editor

The Shortest Duration Constrained Hidden Markov Model: Data Denoise and Forecast Optimization on the Country-Product Matrix for the Fitness-Complexity Algorithm

PONE-D-20-26064R2

Dear Dr. Zong,

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.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. 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 help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- 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.

Kind regards,

Jie Zhang

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 #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: (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 #2: No

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Jie Zhang, Editor

PONE-D-20-26064R2

The Shortest Duration Constrained Hidden Markov Model: Data Denoise and Forecast Optimization on the Country-Product Matrix for the Fitness-Complexity Algorithm

Dear Dr. Zong:

I'm 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 let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, 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.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Jie Zhang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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