PONE-D-22-19672Validity And Intrarater Reliability Of A Novel Device For Assessing Plantar flexor StrengthPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. O'Neill,

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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: Yes

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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: No

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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: No

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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 a study on the reliability and validity of a cost-effective muscle strength test device. Information on accuracy, resolution, reliability, and validity is essential in clinical practice.

In this study, the new device(hardware) whose reliability needs to be investigated is the Nintendo Wii balance board (NWBB). The software - Fysiometer – does not seem to be critical. However, NWBB has already been studied in many previous studies. The differences from previous studies seemed to be clearly stated.

Most previous NWBB studies investigated the inter-rater, intra-rater reliability, and concurrent validity of over 60 patients. It seems necessary to gather more subjects, and statistical methods should be reconsidered by referring to the latest similar studies.

In addition, the clinical applicability of the new method needs to be emphasized by highlighting its strength despite the limitation of the new device.

The references are old. Please add the latest studies.

Reviewer #2: Minor comments:

- Line 67-68: Add please reference to the part "(...) supporting the notion that Plantar flexor weakness may increase the risk of certain lower limb disorders.

- Methods: I would suggest combining Concurrent validity and Test Re-test intra-rater Reliability and creating a sub-paragraph as "Study design".

Major comments:

- Line 70: Please explain the term “Gold Standard”.

- Introduction: Please add a clear perspective of the research problem, and focus on the research explanation about the novelty of this research.

- Introduction: Please add a hypothesis.

- Methods: An estimation of sample size and test power would be appreciated.

- Data analysis: Please identify the exact model and type of ICC according to Koo and Li (2016).

- Results: This section should be re-arranged and focused on the exact results, including absolute and relative reliability. Currently, the section is very unclear to the reader.

- Discussion: A major comment - this section is very pour according to references and literature.

- Limitations: Please re-arrange this part. Why the limitations states one page? It may indicate a huge weakness of this paper. Add the rest of this part into the discussion and prepare clear findings to discuss further.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Validity And Intrarater Reliability Of A Novel Device For Assessing Plantar flexor Strength

PONE-D-22-19672R1

Dear Dr. O'Neill,

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,

Jongsang Son, Ph.D.

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

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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: No

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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: No

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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 #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: Comments raised in a previous review were all addressed by the authors.

The revised manuscript is described a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions.

The manuscript presented is in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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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 #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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