PONE-D-21-12017

A protocol and novel tool for systematically reviewing the effects of mindful walking on mental and cardiovascular health

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr.  Dustin,

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Your manuscript requires MINOR Revisions based on the comments from two reviewers. Please ensure that in your revised manuscript you address all comments.

I looked forward to the revised manuscript

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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?

Descriptions of methods and materials in the protocol should be reported in sufficient detail for another researcher to reproduce all experiments and analyses. The protocol should describe the appropriate controls, sample size calculations, and replication needed to ensure that the data are robust and reproducible.

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?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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.

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

Reviewer #1: The review protocol is good and will bring perfect conclusions where the communities will be benefitec.

Reviewer #2: Review of PONE-D-21-12017: A protocol and novel tool for systematically reviewing the effects of mindful walking on mental and cardiovascular health

This article presents a step-by-step protocol for conducting a systematic review of studies examining the effects of mindful walking on mental and cardiovascular health to ensure procedural transparency and replication of the protocol in future reviews on the topic. The authors also present a novel, free-of-charge tool they have developing for tracking the sources that are identified and screened for inclusion.

The authors present a convincing case for the need for a systematic review in this field, and for the value of providing a protocol to ensure procedural transparency and facilitate replication of the protocol in future reviews. Together with the novel source-tracking tool they offer, their study makes an important contribution to the literature in the specific field, and to the conducting of systematic reviews more generally.

I have a few minor comments and clarifications to request of the authors.

Clarifications:

1. Lines 109-113: Most meta-analyses include studies with interventions and populations that differ. The heterogeneity is something that can be evaluated statistically to determine whether or not it is appropriate to use meta-analysis (with random or fixed effects); and/or stratified meta-analyses can be conducted including more similar intervention types or population groups. I don’t know if the appropriateness of meta-analysis can/should be determined in advance at the stage of the protocol, presumably before the literature search has been conducted (so before knowing the number and characteristics of studies to be included). If, however, the inappropriateness of conducting a meta-analysis could be determined by the preliminary scoping searches mentioned in lines 95-96, it would seem to me that it would be better to state that as the reason for deciding at the protocol stage that meta-analysis will not be appropriate.

2. In Table 1, I don’t understand why the items “Frequency, intensity…”, “Location of the intervention”, and “Participant’ age, sex…” are included under Outcomes. Perhaps this information should be included only in the text, rather than in the PICOS table, or another category should be added to the PICOS table (e.g., Intervention and Participant characteristics).

Minor comments:

1. Lines 92-93: something is missing in this sentence (should perhaps be “we explain the novel tool that was created…”).

2. In the novel tool spreadsheet, the link did not work.

3. The reference management software, RefWorks, that the authors used, is not a free resource; so they may want to suggest alternative free/open-source reference management softwares to complement their free tool.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: THOMAS AYALEW ABEBE

Reviewer #2: No

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A protocol and novel tool for systematically reviewing the effects of mindful walking on mental and cardiovascular health

PONE-D-21-12017R1

Dear Dr. Davis,

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,

Giuseppe Filiberto Serraino, M.D., Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE