PONE-D-23-16163The Correlation Between NAFLD and Serum Uric Acid to Serum Creatinine RatioPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Joe,

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: Statistics must be elaborated. According to the data presented in statistics section, authors stated that 'Student’s t-test, or one-way analysis of variance' was used in comparison of the variables. These tests are used in comparison of the variables that fit into normal distribution. Which test was conducted for normality analysis? Please state appropriately. 

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Gulali Aktas

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Statistics must be elaborated. According to the data presented in statistics section, authors stated that 'Student’s t-test, or one-way analysis of variance' was used in comparison of the variables. These tests are used in comparison of the variables that fit into normal distribution. Which test was conducted for normality analysis? Please state appropriately.

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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: 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: Dear Authors

Thank you very much for the opportunity of reviewing this manuscript for kournal. The article is about positive relationship between the sUA/sCr ratio and the severity of NAFLD. Indeed, the article is very interesting and of utmost importance to the field.

Title is appropriate for article, summary abstracted the manuscript adequately, the keyword is enough. The background and the rationale of the study sufficiently expressed in introduction. Study cohort, laboratory and statistical analyses are well issued in methodology. Results of the study are interesting and given in an easy to read way. Discussion is faultless and is the most perfect section of the manuscript. It does not require any more revisions. References are accurate. 12. The quality of the figures should be improved. Table is informative. As a result, the article should be accepted for publication in the journal.

Reviewer #2: Authors should improve the discussion. Serum uric acid and uric acid based markers are reported to be associated with inflammatory conditions such as hypertension (Postgraduate Medicine 2022;134(3): 297-302. DOI: 10.1080/00325481.2022.2039007), thyroiditis (Rom. J. Intern. Med. 2021;59(4):403-408. DOI: 10.2478/rjim-2021-0023.), metabolic syndrome (Rev Assoc Med Bras 2019; 65(1):9-15. DOI: 10.1590/1806-9282.65.1.9) type 2 DM (Aging Male. 2020;23(5):1098-1102. DOI: 10.1080/13685538.2019.1678126), and diabetic kidney disease (Postgraduate Medicine, 2023. DOI: 10.1080/00325481.2023.2214058). Moreover,the ABUND study showed that uric acid based markers are associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (Rev Assoc Med Bras 2021;67(4):549-554. DOI: 10.1590/1806-9282.20201005.).

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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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The Correlation Between NAFLD and Serum Uric Acid to Serum Creatinine Ratio

PONE-D-23-16163R1

Dear Dr. Joe,

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,

Gulali Aktas

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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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 #1: Yes

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 #1: Yes

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 #1: De ar authors

The manuscript should be accepted for publication for your journal

Reviewer #2: The authors addressed all of my comments in the previous review round. I think the paper does not require further revision. Hence,i I suggest publication in its current form.

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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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