Peer Review History

Original SubmissionDecember 14, 2022
Decision Letter - Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy, Editor

PONE-D-22-34229Back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate studentsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Liew,

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 Feb 22 2023 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,

Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy, Ph.D

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 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 

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

2. We note that you have indicated that data from this study are available upon request. PLOS only allows data to be available upon request if there are legal or ethical restrictions on sharing data publicly. For more information on unacceptable data access restrictions, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-unacceptable-data-access-restrictions. 

In your revised cover letter, please address the following prompts:

a) If there are ethical or legal restrictions on sharing a de-identified data set, please explain them in detail (e.g., data contain potentially sensitive information, data are owned by a third-party organization, etc.) and who has imposed them (e.g., an ethics committee). Please also provide contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee, or other institutional body to which data requests may be sent.

b) If there are no restrictions, please upload the minimal anonymized data set necessary to replicate your study findings as either Supporting Information files or to a stable, public repository and provide us with the relevant URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers. For a list of acceptable repositories, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-recommended-repositories.

We will update your Data Availability statement on your behalf to reflect the information you provide.

3. Please amend your manuscript to include your abstract after the title page. 

4. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information. 

5. 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.

[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: Partly

**********

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: No

**********

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

**********

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: Review comments on Manuscript Number: PONE-D-22-34229. Entitled "Back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate students"

Overall, the idea of research is very interesting to be studied nowadays and paper is coherently developed. However, there are some comments and suggestions.

Abstract

- Well structured

- Keywords: write it in alphabetical order

Introduction

- The abbreviations already mentioned in the abstract so no need to re-write complete terms

Materials and methods

- Well structured

Statistical analysis

- Well structured

References

Update some references is required

Reviewer #2: The manuscript title should include the type of the study. Conclusion of the study doesn't declare the end result of the study obviously, I think it should be re-written. The author should declare participants inclusion criteria rather than study programmes only.

**********

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

**********

[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.<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Review comments on Manuscript Number.doc
Revision 1

Please see uploaded document for a properly formatted response.

Reviewer #1

Review comments on Manuscript Number: PONE-D-22-34229. Entitled "Back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate students". Overall, the idea of research is very interesting to be studied nowadays and paper is coherently developed. However, there are some comments and suggestions.

Abstract

- Well structured

Reply: We thank the Reviewer for the positive comments. We will address all feedback and suggestions provided by the Reviewer.

- Keywords: write it in alphabetical order

Reply: We have reordered it to alphabetical order.

Introduction

- The abbreviations already mentioned in the abstract so no need to re-write complete terms

Reply: We thank the Reviewer for this comment. We kindly have to disagree with this feedback, as we feel that similar to Figures and Tables, the main manuscript should be worded independently from the Abstract. We have thus retained the definition of the abbreviations in the main manuscript. However, we will seek the guidance of the Editor on this matter too, during the resubmission process.

Materials and methods

- Well structured

Statistical analysis

- Well structured

Reply: We thank the Reviewer for the positive comments.

References

Update some references is required

Reply: We thank the Reviewer for this comment. We are unsure if the Reviewer is suggesting we ensure our References are follow PLoS’s guidance, or if new references are needed. We have ensured that our Reference format follows PLoS. We believe that we have tried to cite the latest evidence where available. We are very open to amending any references that the Reviewer thinks needs editing. We hope that the Reviewer can provide the relevant citations for us to consider including.  

Reviewer #2

The manuscript title should include the type of the study.

Reply: We have modified the title to read as “A cross-sectional investigation of back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate students”.

Conclusion of the study doesn't declare the end result of the study obviously, I think it should be re-written.

Reply: We have added a sentence at the start of the Conclusion, that reads as:

The effect of different undergraduate health and sport study programs on back pain beliefs and fear depended on the study year.

The author should declare participants inclusion criteria rather than study programmes only.

Reply: We thank the Reviewer for this comment. We followed the broad inclusion criteria of prior similar publications (Inman and Ellard, 2022; Leysen et al., 2021), where the priminary inclusion criteria was that students are enrolled into the program. Given that the aim of the present study was to investigate the beliefs and fear in a representative sample of students in our defined study programs, there was no further inclusion criteria.

References

1.Inman, J.G.K., Ellard, D.R., 2022. What influences graduate medical students’ beliefs of lower back pain? A mixed methods cross sectional study. BMC Med Educ 22, 633.

2.Leysen, M., Nijs, J., Van Wilgen, P., Demoulin, C., Dankaerts, W., Danneels, L., . . . Roussel, N., 2021. Attitudes and beliefs on low back pain in physical therapy education: A cross-sectional study. Braz J Phys Ther 25, 319-28.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: ReplyReview_R1_v1.docx
Decision Letter - Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy, Editor

A cross-sectional investigation of back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate students

PONE-D-22-34229R1

Dear Dr. Bernard X W Liew,

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,

Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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: Review comments on Manuscript Number: PONE-D-22-34229R1. “Entitled "A cross-sectional investigation of back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate students"

Overall, the idea of research is very interesting, organized and well written reasonable. The authors have done great effort to accomplish this work. They fulfilled all reviewers' comments and made necessary changes throughput the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: The author has been addressed all previous comments and the manuscript seems to be corrected precisely

**********

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: Amira M. Abd-elmonem

Reviewer #2: No

**********

<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy, Editor

PONE-D-22-34229R1

A cross-sectional investigation of back pain beliefs and fear in physiotherapy and sport undergraduate students

Dear Dr. Liew:

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. Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .