PONE-D-23-26146Color Quest: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Color Palettes and Enhancing Accessibility in Data VisualizationPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Nelli,

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Mohamed Rafik N. Qureshi, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

A significant improvement is necessary to the paper "Color Quest: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Color Palettes and Enhancing Accessibility in Data Visualization" since it fails to meet a number of quality criteria.

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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: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: N/A

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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: No

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: Authors of this document asserted an Interactive Tool for Exploring Color Palettes and claiming that this can enhance Accessibility in Data Visualization.

This paper has a good structure with a good description about the proposed solution which looks promising but it doesn’t provide any examples of using it. References are from reputable publishers and also up-to-date.

No literature review was included, which was intended to offer a thorough grasp of the research problem and the various existing or similar solutions. This paper also lacks both metrics for assessing the proposed solution and a verified analysis of its efficacy.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript introduces "Color Quest", an interactive tool developed to address accessibility issues in data visualization, specifically considering individuals with color vision deficiencies. This is a significant contribution, given the growing emphasis on inclusivity and accessibility in scientific communication.Overall, the manuscript is well-structured and written clearly. The abstract succinctly summarizes the paper's main points and provides a clear understanding of the tool's purpose and potential impact.

Specific Comments:

Line 5: "Glsagow, UK" seems to be a typo. It should be corrected to "Glasgow, UK".

Lines 12-13: You mentioned the ability of the tool to visualize color palettes on custom images. Including a brief mention of the feature allowing users to upload their images might provide a more rounded view of the app’s capabilities in the abstract.

Line 66: The connection between the limitation with black-and-white printers and the black and white option in the tool could be clarified further.

Lines 78-79: Mentioning that the code is open-source and available at GitHub is a great point. It would be good to also state if any documentation or community guidelines are available for potential contributors.

Lines 80-95: The discussion highlights the potential impacts of the tool very well. Adding a glimpse of future developments or enhancements could add more depth to this section. E.g., mentioning a few specific examples or case studies where the tool could be beneficial might give a more grounded view of its potential applications.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Color Quest: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Color Palettes and Enhancing Accessibility in Data Visualization

PONE-D-23-26146R1

Dear Dr. Nelli,

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,

Mohamed Rafik N. Qureshi, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Thank you for your updated version of "Color Quest: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Color Palettes and Enhancing Accessibility in Data Visualization"

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: 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 #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: N/A

Reviewer #3: N/A

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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 revision is sufficient. Further information on the related literature has been provided, future developments have been addided to the Discussion and grammatical issues have been corrected.

Reviewer #3: I thank the author for their effort and time in revising this paper. Please consider fixing this minor typo in the manuscript:

"that approximately that approximately" → "that approximately"

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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: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Ghazal Kalhor

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