Peer Review History

Original SubmissionOctober 18, 2021
Decision Letter - Muhammad Hussnain Siddique, Editor

PONE-D-21-33360Molecular Characterizatiion of plant growth promoting vermibacteria associated with Eisenia fetida gastrointestinal tractPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Andleeb,

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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Muhammad Hussnain Siddique

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

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https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf".

2. Thank you for stating the following in the Acknowledgments Section of your manuscript:

“Whole research work is done under HEC funded project No. TDF-02-006 titled: “Establishment of the vermi-tech unit at Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad for vermi product development”.

We note that you have provided funding information that is not currently declared in your Funding Statement. However, funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form.

Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows:

“Whole research work is done under HEC funded project No. TDF-02-006 titled: “Establishment of the vermi-tech unit at Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad for vermi product development”. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.”

Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

**********

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: No

**********

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: 1- The literature review is adequate.

2- The experimental design is appropriate.

3- The manuscript with sound contribution.

4- The writing: It does contain many of the usual grammatical mistakes.

5- The discussion: Rewrite the last two sentences of the last paragraph. The conclusion was overstated beyond what the data actually support.

Reviewer #2: Reviewer Comments;

Title: Appropriate

Abstract:

Rephrase the sentence, “Results revealed that 11 vermi-bacterial isolates were isolated from the digestive tract of Eisenia fetida.”

Change “Indole acetic acid” to “indole acetic acid”

Rephrase the statement “It was concluded that all vermi-bacterial isolates could be used as potential microbial biofertilizers for the cultivation of crops in Pakistan.”

Abstract is poorly written, needs improvements

Introduction:

Provide latest citations/references

Material and Methods:

Ethical statement: ethical approval from institutional ethics committee is missing

Results:

Table 1: Scientific names must be on standard format “E. fetida”.

Discussion: Improve discussion, add latest citations

Conclusion: Conclusion is generalized. Provide specific outcomes of this study.

References: cross check references in the text and list provided

Language: improve manuscript for English language and grammatical errors

Comments for Editor:

Accept with major revision

**********

6. 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

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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: PlosOne Review Comments.docx
Revision 1

Reviewer #1:

1- The literature review is adequate. Thanks for positive consideration.

2- The experimental design is appropriate. Thanks for positive concern.

3- The manuscript with sound contribution. Thanks for positive comment

4- The writing: It does contain many of the usual grammatical mistakes. Has been modified

5- The discussion: Rewrite the last two sentences of the last paragraph. The conclusion was overstated beyond what the data actually support. Has been modified

Reviewer #2

Title: Appropriate

Thanks for positive consideration.

Abstract:

Rephrase the sentence, “Results revealed that 11 vermi-bacterial isolates were isolated from the digestive tract of Eisenia fetida.”

Has been rephrased

Change “Indole acetic acid” to “indole acetic acid”

Has been changed

Rephrase the statement “It was concluded that all vermi-bacterial isolates could be used as potential microbial biofertilizers for the cultivation of crops in Pakistan.”

Has been rephrased

Abstract is poorly written, needs improvements

Has been improved

Introduction:

Provide latest citations/references

Has been added.

Material and Methods:

Ethical statement: ethical approval from institutional ethics committee is missing

Has been added

Results:

Table 1: Scientific names must be on standard format “E. fetida”.

Has been modified

Discussion: Improve discussion, add latest citations

Has been improved

Conclusion: Conclusion is generalized. Provide specific outcomes of this study.

Has been modified

References: cross check references in the text and list provided

Has been modified

Language: improve manuscript for English language and grammatical errors

Has been improved

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: PlosOne Review Comments.doc
Decision Letter - Muhammad Hussnain Siddique, Editor

Molecular Characterization of plant growth-promoting vermibacteria associated with Eisenia fetida gastrointestinal tract

PONE-D-21-33360R1

Dear Dr. Andleeb,

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,

Muhammad Hussnain Siddique

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

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 #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: The Introduction section requires English editing service. Improvement is required for Conclusion section.

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 #1: Yes: Wei Hong Lau

Reviewer #2: No

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Muhammad Hussnain Siddique, Editor

PONE-D-21-33360R1

Molecular Characterization of plant growth-promoting vermi-bacteria associated with Eisenia fetida gastrointestinal tract

Dear Dr. Andleeb:

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. Muhammad Hussnain Siddique

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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