PONE-D-23-41514Traffic Trajectory Data Analysis and Key Technologies of Map Matching Algorithm Based on HMM ModelPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sun,

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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Yan Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: No

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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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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

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: The authors have submitted the manuscript " Traffic Trajectory Data Analysis and Key Technologies of Map Matching Algorithm Based on HMM Model". Although the manuscript can benefit the readers of the journal, but there are many issues with the manuscript in its current form. Some of them have been mentioned below:

1. The manuscript requires english editing for the audience to comprehend the text. There are many issue with writing of this manuscript. I would suggest the authors to ask native english speaker/editor to correct and proofread the manuscript.

2. I think the authors must revisit and revise the title, it should be focussing on Map matching algorithm using HMM model

3. The formation of sentences is complex, so must be simplified. There are many instances of it, Point 1 will help authors. The first 4-5 lines in abstract needs to be rewritten.

4. Section Introduction needs to re-written to add the required references. The statements has been made without proper citations. For example ... Traditional map matching algorithms....

Words are connected and needs to separated.

5. Section Related work (should be section 2) is one of the poorest in this manuscript. No sentence formation is incorrect (should be past tense) and does not seem to be connected with the flow, reference numbers are missing when citing authors names. Second last paragraph seems like random reference text, should be corrected or removed with similar context. The word, ...All in all .... is non-technical.

6. Third section should be Methodology that include HMM-based algorithm... Need to rewrite sentence here too. Figure 1 is actually a table. Remove duplicated statements in this section, subtitles are needs revision (should be short and crisp); Formulas are used without citations and need flow in the discussion.

7 Section 3 in the manuscript should be section 4 results. Again the issue with the wording confusing statements are mentioned.

Reviewer #2: This study proposes a map matching algorithm based on hidden Markov models. The proposed algorithm starts from the global route, selects K nearest candidate paths, and identifies candidate points through the candidate paths. It generates a state transition matrix using changes in speed, angle, and other information to match trajectory points to the actual route. In this paper, a key technology of map matching algorithm is proposed. The topic is interesting. However, there are some problems, which must be solved before it is considered for publication.

1. The abstract section discusses that the algorithm used in the paper is more accurate than traditional algorithms, but the running time will increase. This section only provides a simple description but lacks data comparison so it is not convincing enough. It is suggested that a detailed analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods in the "Introduction" section be added, which will demonstrate whether the map matching algorithm based on hidden Markov models can solve problems that traditional algorithms cannot solve in practical applications.

2. In the "HMM based map matching algorithm" section, the article mentions the need to preprocess data containing a large amount of attribute information, especially for data with information loss, redundant data, and incorrect information logic. However, no specific processing standards were mentioned. Therefore, you need to supple standards for data processing in this section.

3. According to the K-HMM algorithm flowchart in Table 4, is the value of T here the same as the track data T in Chapter 2.2? How to determine the value of T?

4. How many experiments are conducted for each K value in Table 7 to determine the time consumption and accuracy? Is it universal?

5. When explaining the geometric graph matching algorithm, the paper mentions that the trajectory points based on geometric factors are located on line B, while the true matching points are on line A. This part only explains the results without describing the process.

6. In Chapter 3.1, the Figure 8(b) “Partial trajectory map” was not explicitly used in the text. Perhaps it is to express the distribution of the remaining points when 3 points are used as trajectory candidate points, but there is no clear reference in the article.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Sukhjit Singh Sehra

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-23-41514R1Traffic Trajectory Data Analysis Technology Based on HMM Model Map Matching AlgorithmPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sun,

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 May 01 2024 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,

Yan Wang

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:

Authors should polish language and update references

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: (No Response)

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: No

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: No

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: The authors have submitted the manuscript " Traffic Trajectory Data Analysis Technology Based on HMM Model Map Matching Algorithm". The manuscript can benefit the readers of the journal. The authors response to the corrections made in not comprehensive, how they have improved the manuscript and what sections/lines have been updated.

I appreciate the authors for addressing inputs shared, but the English is still needs to be improved for making this manuscript publishable. Also, authors need to see how the related work in other articles is mentioned and how references are cited. It looks like discontinuity in the paragraphs of the manuscript. I would suggest to make the manuscript little short to say the same thing in fewer sentences.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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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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[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.

Traffic Trajectory Data Analysis Technology Based on HMM Model Map Matching Algorithm

PONE-D-23-41514R2

Dear Dr. Sun,

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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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,

Yan Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

the current version is suitable for publication.

Reviewers' comments: