PONE-D-21-38258A comparison between two glucose measurement methods in beef steers during a glucose tolerance testPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Parker,

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.

Because one of the reviewers raised several crucial questions regarding the hypothesis tested, methods and statistical analysis, I invite you to revise the manuscript taken into consideration his comments. Also, please make sure to reply all his comments with detailed answers to allow myself and the reviewer to better understand what was proposed in the manuscript. Because we did not have many comments from one of the reviewers at this time, and was quite difficult to find available reviewers, I am passing the manuscript for you to review with the comments made to avoid any further delay. However, after your revision the manuscript shall be sent to a third reviewer for assessment. 

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Marcio Duarte, PhD

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: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

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: This manuscript aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a hand-held glucometer in beef cattle The manuscript is within the scope of the Plos One and can be accepted for publication. However, this manuscript should be classified as a short communication.

Reviewer #2: Lines 56-59 - I really didn’t understand why you are pointing out these limitations and possible errors of the laboratory method as a justification for using the hand-held glucometer. Because you are using this method as a gold-standard method for your comparison and recommendation of the alternative method.

Lines 60-62 - This sentence sounds very informal to a paper’s introduction. I believe that should be in a more appropriate place, such as discussion.

Lines 68-70 - What is the real necessity to validate the same method for beef cattle? Why the results should be different for beef cattle when compared with dairy cattle? We are talking about the method.

Line 101 and line 104 – Is the range of reading from 20 to 300 or 20 to 500? There is confusion here.

Lines 105-107 - This is not correct. This sample should be deleted from the database because you are not certain about the value.

Lines 118-120 - Why did you not test for normality?? You need to be certain about distribution because that could be biasing the results.

Lines 120-123 – In a general way, the information concerning statistical analysis and methods for assessing adequacy were poorly described in this section. Some explanations about these methods are dispersed over the results and discussion, which is not the best place for that. I suggest that authors should be providing these details in the current section.

Line 132 - Why did you not include regression to test the adequacy of your new method?

Lines 137-139 - I am really not sure about the confidence to test transformed variables. It is proved that variables transformation to follow Gaussian distribution, do not represent a good estimate of the real value when a back-transformation is applied. I believe that is a similar case. The funnel shape is also present in the transformed data, but with lower intensity. The authors should think about that.

Lines 142-1444 - It is clear that there is a bias over 300 mg/dL (Figures 1 and 2) and I believe that should be analyzed and reported in the manuscript.

Lines 160-174 - This entire paragraph is closer to a material and methods than a discussion.

Lines 215-218 - Which is the necessity to repeat this text?

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Otavio R. Machado Neto

Reviewer #2: No

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Short communication: A comparison between two glucose measurement methods in beef steers during a glucose tolerance test

PONE-D-21-38258R1

Dear Dr. Parker,

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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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,

Marcio Duarte, PhD

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

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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

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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

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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

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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: The authors have answered all of my concerns. Because of that, I believe the manuscript is now ready for publication.

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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 #2: Yes: Alex Lopes da Silva

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