PONE-D-21-22502Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Surface Sediments of the Chishui River Basin, ChinaPLOS ONE

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Xiaoshan Zhu, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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This study was funded by the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology [grant number SKLLQG2036], the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Leading Science and Technology Project (Category B) [grant number XDB40000000], the Guizhou Institute of Technology High-level Talent Research Startup Funding Project [grant number 2019, 45], the Science and Technology Program of Guizhou Province (Guizhou Science and Technology Cooperation Support [grant number 2018, 20101]), and the Science and Technology Foundation of Water Resources Department of Guizhou Province [grant number KT201508].

  

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This study was funded by the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology [grant number SKLLQG2036], the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Leading Science and Technology Project (Category B) [grant number XDB40000000], the Guizhou Institute of Technology High-level Talent Research Startup Funding Project [grant number 2019, 45], the Science and Technology Program of Guizhou Province (Guizhou Science and Technology Cooperation Support [grant number 2018, 20101]), and the Science and Technology Foundation of Water Resources Department of Guizhou Province [grant number KT201508].

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This study was funded by the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology [grant number SKLLQG2036], the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Leading Science and Technology Project (Category B) [grant number XDB40000000], the Guizhou Institute of Technology High-level Talent Research Startup Funding Project [grant number 2019, 45], the Science and Technology Program of Guizhou Province (Guizhou Science and Technology Cooperation Support [grant number 2018, 20101]), and the Science and Technology Foundation of Water Resources Department of Guizhou Province [grant number KT201508].

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Additional Editor Comments:

To meet the requires for publishing, the introduction, method, results and conclusion of the MS all need major revision.

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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: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

Reviewer #2: 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

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 primary goal of the manuscript was to examine the presence of heavy metal contaminants in surface sediments of the Chishui River Basin, China. The authors have used relevant methods and technology to conduct their research and their findings support their conclusions.

In page #6, the authors should verify the equation:   = log2[ /(1.5 × )]. If necessary,“i” may be replaced with “n”.

 It appears that the authors wanted to cite specific references for each equation but it is not in proper format. Please see below for an example and edit as needed.   Page#6:   = log2[ /(1.5 × )],     (1)

 Figure 2 (a,b,c) should be compiled for one figure (Page 12 and 13) 

The authors missed inserting line numbers in the whole manuscript.

The authors should write completely for different abbreviations. For example, in line # 3 of page 3 pollution load should be changed to “pollution load index. Similarly, RI should be replaced with ERI (line # 3 of Page #3). 

 1.      Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

Yes, the authors have used relevant methods and technology to conduct their research and their findings support their conclusions. 

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

 Yes, the authors have used appropriate statistical methods for data analyses.  

 3.      Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? Yes, the authors have provided relevant data related to the manuscript.  

4.     Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

The authors have written the manuscript in a logical fashion and used Standard English. The manuscript has a few typos and a few sentences should be rewritten.

Reviewer #2: The study evaluate the pollution characteristics of heavy metals in the sediments of the Chishui River Basin using five heavy metals in surface sediments and the geo-accumulation, pollution load, and potential ecological risk indexes. It is importance for the evaluation of environmental status and human being health. However, the data in the paper lack of replicates, which was not trustful enough. The introduction, method, results and conclusion all need major revision.

The specific comments can be found in the attached file.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-21-22502_reviewer.pdf

PONE-D-21-22502R1Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Surface Sediments of the Chishui River Basin, ChinaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. An,

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 submit your revised manuscript by Dec 30 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: https://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,

Xiaoshan Zhu, Ph.D.

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.

Additional Editor Comments:

please address the reviewer's comments as soon as possible, thanks.

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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 #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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 #1: Yes

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 #1: Yes

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 #1: It appears that the authors have not edited the reference format for the equations (Line # 155, 168, 169, 170, 184, 190,

Many references are missing. For example, Wu (2001) (Line #71) and Zou et al (2010) (# 76). The authors should check carefully throughout the manuscript.

The authors should check carefully grammatical errors throughout the manuscript (e.g., line #108 – 112)

Reviewer #2: This paper evaluate the pollution characteristics of heavy metals in the sediments of the Chishui River Basin.

All the comments were well addressed. An accept is suggested.

**********

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

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.

Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Surface Sediments of the Chishui River Basin, China

PONE-D-21-22502R2

Dear Dr. An,

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,

Xiaoshan Zhu, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: