PONE-D-22-26195Weed community changes in saffron–chickpea intercropping under different irrigation managementPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Pouryousef,

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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ACADEMIC EDITOR: 

• Manuscript English needs to improve.
• Provide some quantitative data in the abstract for a better understanding.
• Provide details such as the number of saffron plants in mono-cropping, nutrient management, and other agronomic practices followed in this experiment, what was the size of the main and subplot in this study.
• Provide the test names for normality and homogeneity of variance in the statistics section.
• Add crop observations, economics, and yield data in the result section to strengthen the manuscript.
• For more comments please see the manuscript.

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by two weeks. 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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Prabhu Govindasamy, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

• Manuscript English needs to improve.

• Provide some quantitative data in the abstract for a better understanding.

• Provide details such as the number of saffron plants in mono-cropping, nutrient management, and other agronomic practices followed in this experiment, what was the size of the main and subplot in this study.

• Provide the test names for normality and homogeneity of variance in the statistics section.

• Add crop observations, economics, and yield data in the result section to strengthen the manuscript.

• For more comments, please see the manuscript.

[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

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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: Weed community changes in saffron–chickpea intercropping under different irrigation management-This research investigated irrigation regime and intercropping, effect on weed control and diversity. The research is unique nd would be of interest to PLOSE ONE readers.

Title is confusing looking like you used only intercrop of saffron and chickpea. But in this study you also used sole saffron and sole chickpea.

The English and scientific writing needs improvement.

There are several details missing to fully describe material & methods effectively: -how you calculate net plot in this study?

-nutrient management part is missing.

-What was the nutrient content in studied soil?

-Size of each main plot?

-You collected weed data at 75 DAS of chickpea. But by this time the weeds would have affected the saffron.

-How you checked normality and variance homogeneity of data?

-What was the objective to take sole chickpea here?

-Follow journal(PLOS ONE) pattern in all references.

-Italic all scientific names.

Specific comments:

-Full and short title both are same.

-Arrange key words in alphabetical order.

-Line17: Both in eight row. What does it mean?

-Line 36: Kg ha-1 make it in superscript.

-Line 37: Delete production.

-Line 50: This sentence need a complete revision to make it sound good.

-Line 72: Vicia faba in italic.

-Line 80-82: Remove too much result based references from introduction.

-Line 83: Add space in between "%" and "27".

-Line 85: Cicer arietinum in italic

-Line 93: Delete according to.

-Line 94: could be in place of be could.

-Line120: plant m-2 in place of plant m2.

-Line 125: How were the sample location selected in each plot?

-Line132 and 133: Eh and Ln are change in formula.

-Line239: Resource in place of recource.

-Line 254: et al??

The discussion part is poor and lacks proper explanation and reasoning.

To make their writing easier to read, the authors should improve it.

Reviewer #2: I have gone through the manuscript "Weed community changes in saffron–chickpea intercropping under different irrigation management". There study was carried out at semi-arid cold ecologies of Zanjan, Iran in the randomised block design. The manuscript explains an environment-friendly system of weed control. Considering the novelty, lack of information on saffron+chickpea intercropping system and the quality of MS, I feel that there are several strong reasons to accept the MS after moderate level of revisions. Addressing the below points will add more value to the MS:

1. Questions to be addressed -

· What is the effect of this system on saffron yield?

· What about the cost-effectiveness of this system (net profits and cost:benefit ratio)?

· How the crop management was done and what agronomic management was practiced. Corrections: Line 83 - %, Line 94 – could be, Line 239 – resource

2. Write saffron + chickpea instead of saffron - chickpea as "+" is more appropriate and internationally acceptable for intercropping systems.

3. The results in abstract needs to be written in quantitative terms. Merely writing the statements are not sufficient for a scientific paper.

4. Discussion part is poorly written. Please discuss the results in a more comprehensive manner.

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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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[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.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Article MF.docx

Attachment

Submitted filename: Associate editor comments.docx

PONE-D-22-26195R1Weed community changes in saffron–chickpea intercropping under different irrigation managementPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Pouryousef,

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 Jun 16 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,

Prabhu Govindasamy, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

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.

Additional Editor Comments:

Manuscript English is not up to the acceptable level. In abstract and conclusion need to do more work, see my attached file. Provide yield data.

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

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: 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: Study covered weed community changes in saffron–chickpea intercropping under different irrigation management-The research is unique and would be of interest to PLOSE ONE readers. However, there are minor corrections which should be addressed for improving quality of manuscript.

Full and short title are same.

Nutrient management part is still missing in material & method section.

Line 85: 27% and 15%

Line 89: correct sentence.

Line 89: write scientific name in italic.

Line 93: Remove according to.

Line 95: Saffron

Line 99: saffron+chickpea

Line 114: Correct alignment.

Line 116: m2 in superscript.

Line 121 : replace data with date.

Line 125: Give the stages when you applied irrigations.

Line: 129: figure.

Line 171: use multiplication symbol instead of *.

Line 191: Fig 3a & 3b.

Discussion part need to improve.

Yield data is missing.

Reviewer #2: The authors have done sufficient revisions. However, the minor English language related issues and formatting of references as per the journal format may be done. The manuscript may be accepted.

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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

**********

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

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Manuscript revision (clean copy) .docx

Weed community changes in saffron–chickpea intercropping under different irrigation management

PONE-D-22-26195R2

Dear Dr. Majid Pouryousef,

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,

Prabhu Govindasamy, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: 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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: 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

**********

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

**********

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: (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: No

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