PONE-D-21-36906Bibliometric analysis of the global research trends and hotspots in chordoma from 2000 to 2020PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Dai,

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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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 is an interesting study to examine the publish pattern in chordoma in the last two decade utilizing “bibliometric analysis” , which provides some additional and interesting information compared to what we used to see in systemic review or review article.

However I do have some concerns and recommendation for authors.

1. I did a pubmed search using same time period from Jan 1 2000 to Dec 31 2020 but just chordoma as a keyword and I found 2894 articles and 454 reviews. The authors used a wide range of keywords and many of which may not be chordoma diagnosis but only 1865 articles and 253 reviews retrieved. Authors should explain the difference of WOSCC versus other public available most used scientific databases. In addition, authors should clarify why other key words were also selected and those articles did not focus on chordoma should be excluded.

2. Although it is very interesting to see countries, regions, journals, authors and citations of publications in the global fashion in the existing literature, I think that authors could further highlight the most important advancement/discovery that has been made in the last two decades in four categories (pathology diagnosis, surgery, radiation, and systemic treatment). Authors did a good job on last one but should do similar discussion on other arears as well. Also readers would be very interested to know the consistency or discrepancy from different publications especially from different countries/regions.

3. From the methodology perspective, authors should emphasize the unique advantages or differences of bibliometric analysis versus systemic review as this analysis is not as common and maybe unfamiliar to most readers. More importantly this could address what unique contribution of this particular article has generated in this field by addressing this issue.

4. It is notable that most journals publishing most chordoma paper in the last two decades are relatively low impact. I think it is important for authors to discuss this important finding which may support the future research for rare cancer.

5. Although this is well-written manuscript and authors address points clearly and concisely but I strongly recommend authors to use professional English writer (or use Grammars software) to polish up English throughout. One example “ Although chordoma is slow growth, few distant metastases (late metastases), and may delay diagnosis, its local destruction…. “ this sentence does not make sense. Another example : Many places authors use “then” which could be replace by “subsequent” as more professional writing.

Reviewer #2: The authors of this article have attempted to conduct a bibliometric analysis of Chordoma and the current research regarding the same. They also have identified the lacunae in the chinese publications and their lack of of co-operative research. This knowledge is probably relevant to the readers in china and does give some idea to the asian and south asian neurosurgical research communities.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Xiaolan Feng

Reviewer #2: No

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Bibliometric analysis of the global research trends and hotspots in chordoma from 2000 to 2020

PONE-D-21-36906R1

Dear Dr. Dai,

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,

Farzad Taghizadeh-Hesary

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

Reviewer #3: (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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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 addressed the queries raised by the co-reviwer and probably tried to explain their point of view in the best possible way.

The manuscript has its own merit in the form of explaining recent developments in the diagnostic material based on molecular mechanism and future therapeutic targets.

Reviewer #3: The intended meaning for the sentence "The Chinese institutions and scholars lacked cooperation with their counterparts in other countries." is not clear.

Conclusion needs to be better drafted

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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: Rajan Sundaresan Vediappan, Professor, Head & Neck Skull Base Surgery, Department of ENT, unit-1, Christian Medical College, Vellore, TN, India.

Reviewer #3: Yes: Amit Agrawal

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