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PONE-D-23-28228EXPRESSION OF RAS AND RAB INTERACTOR 1 (RIN1) IN HEAD AND NECK TUMORS AT SELECTED HOSPITAL IN GHANAPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Barnes,

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Additional Editor Comments:

Your manuscript was reviewed by a knowledgeable referee in the area. As noted in the attached comments, the reviewer felt that the manuscript is technically not quite sound, the data do not always support the conclusions. In addition, the manuscript is not presented in an intelligible fashion and its English needs improving. The editor has read carefully the paper and fully agrees with the reviewer’s opinion. Please address the issues raised by the reviewer in a thoughtful and complete manner and submit the revised manuscript for further consideration.

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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

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

Reviewer #1: No

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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

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: 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: Section Comments

Title Page Item C

- The Department of Molecular Medicine is situated in the School of Medicine and Dentistry. The name, School of Medical Sciences has long been changed.

Abstract

Background Line 1

- Subject verb agreement. Head and neck was presented in the singular as ‘tumor’ and the verb used was ‘are’.

- This must be revised as the definition covers a number of sites which exceeds one unit.

Line 3

- The sentence ‘… has been implicated in a number of cancers’ is vague.

- For a manuscript of this value, the suggested or intended implication, whether positive or negative should be stated to set the foundation for the research.

Methods Line 5

- The sentence ‘…RIN1 expression was analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR…’ needs to be revised as PCR is not a tool for analyzing in itself.

Line 6

- The samples were not selected from consecutive series but rather a retrospective study which relied on tissue blocks. This must be corrected and revised.

- The 150 represents tissue blocks prepared from samples obtained from patients rather than the presentation that it was 150 neck and tumour patients.

- The 150 tissue blocks were selected from different facilities.

Line 8

- Restatement of the aim/objective. Rephrase and concentrate on the standard format for presentation of results.

Line 9

- Grammatical errors and incoherence in sentence construction. Example, ‘… low in tumour tissue samples than in t RIN1….’

Line 10

- Aside control slides used to guide immune-staining, there were no samples labelled as normal which were used in comparative analysis with the case samples.

- ‘high and low Rin 1…’ check the sequence and flow.

Line 11

- The sentence is in disarray and does not communicate relevant information to be consumed as results.

Lines 12-13

- Sentence disarray. Revise.Introduction

Line 1

- In the abstract section, authors used the tag ‘head and neck tumour’ but in the first line of the introduction, this was presented as ‘head and neck cancers’. Authors must be more specific with terminology.

Line 7

- Estimates of HNC cases were quoted from a 2002 WHO reference document. Between the years 2002 to date, data on HNC cases will have sharp variations from that quoted from 20 years ago.

Line 11

- WHO summary report as mentioned was not referenced.

- There is no linkage with the introduction of papillomavirus in the line of argument with RIN1.

Line 14-16

- No reference for the kind of information stated.

Line 17

- Wrong positioning of the reference

Line 27

- States ‘Ab1 family tyrosine kinases’ which was re-stated as ‘ABL tyrosine kinases’ in Line 28.

- Authors must be consistent with the presentation of technical terms.

Line 35

- The sentence flow is incoherent. Revise.

Line 37

- Sentence requires correction.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: EXPRESSION OF RAS AND RAB INTERACTOR I.docx

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-23-28228 (Reviewed).pdf

EXPRESSION OF RAS AND RAB INTERACTOR 1 (RIN1) IN HEAD AND NECK TUMORS AT SELECTED HOSPITAL IN GHANA

PONE-D-23-28228R1

Dear Dr. Barnes,

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,

Laszlo Buday

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: