PONE-D-23-25128Identifying meta-research with researchers as study subjects: protocol for a scoping reviewPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Laynor,

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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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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Lutz Bornmann

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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This information should be included in your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

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"Funding: Funding was received from NIA for this work (Stevens - 1K01AG075169-01A1). The funder had no role in  the preparation of this study.

 Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

 Author Contributions: ERS conceived of the study, contributed to methods development, acquired funding, and   drafted the manuscript. GL conceived of the study, contributed to methods development and contributed to    manuscript writing   and is guarantor of the review."

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Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows: 

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Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

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Additional Editor Comments:

The second reviewer has not seen that you submitted a Registered Report Protocol. Thus, please ignore his/her corresponding comments. 

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does the manuscript provide a valid rationale for the proposed study, with clearly identified and justified research questions?

The research question outlined is expected to address a valid academic problem or topic and contribute to the base of knowledge in the field.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Is the protocol technically sound and planned in a manner that will lead to a meaningful outcome and allow testing the stated hypotheses?

The manuscript should describe the methods in sufficient detail to prevent undisclosed flexibility in the experimental procedure or analysis pipeline, including sufficient outcome-neutral conditions (e.g. necessary controls, absence of floor or ceiling effects) to test the proposed hypotheses and a statistical power analysis where applicable. As there may be aspects of the methodology and analysis which can only be refined once the work is undertaken, authors should outline potential assumptions and explicitly describe what aspects of the proposed analyses, if any, are exploratory.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Is the methodology feasible and described in sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicable?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors described where all data underlying the findings will be made available when the study is complete?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception, at the time of publication. 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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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 and, if applicable, provide comments about issues authors must address before this protocol can be accepted for publication. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about research or publication ethics.

You may also provide optional suggestions and comments to authors that they might find helpful in planning their study.

(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript is a protocol for data collection for a scoping review on studies of researchers as study subjects and outlines why searching for the literature for studies concerned with researchers is difficult. This is an important concern for scoping reviews on meta-research as the terminology is very heterogenous and the term 'researcher(s)' itself very common and unspecific.

For the study being preregistered, the authors focus on research in the health scieces in order to limit the scope of the potentially vast literature. A search strategy using a series two-component combination phrases is proposed, the components being terms for researchers and terms for their actions. This was supplemented by also searching for the combination of the first component with terms relating to meta-research.

Minor remark.

p. 12 l. 280 a word seems to be missing in this phrase: "studies that would eligibility criteria for inclusion in the scoping review."

I think this protocol is ready for publication.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is about meta-research with researchers as subjects. The manuscript proposes concepts for conducting meta-research, in particular a scoping review in this area. Except for examples in the appendix, no specific scoping review has been conducted on a topic.

The manuscript addresses an interesting and important topic for quantitative science studies and is written in a clear and concise manner, but it cannot be recommended for publication for the following reasons.

- Criteria for publication: The manuscript is a proposal and does not report the results of an empirical study. According to the criteria for publication (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/criteria-for-publication), “hypothesis or proposal papers” should not be published in PlosOne.

- Literature: The manuscript does not reflect literature from “Quantitative Science Studies”, “Science of Science”, or “Research on Research”, which are mainly concerned with this topic, also in meta-perspective. The revised manuscript should demonstrate the need for meta-research from the existing literature.

- Interdisciplinarity: Researchers as objects of study can be examined from very different perspectives, such as psychological (e.g. motivation), medical (e.g. influence of testosterone), statistical and sociological. I wonder whether scoping reviews of this kind do not also require special expertise in a field and special questions in order to be able to draw conclusions from them. However, this is not discussed in the draft.

- Lack of differentiation to meta-analysis: The proposed steps are more or less identical to those of a meta-analysis. I wonder if there is a big difference between scoping reviews and meta-analysis or ordinary reviews.

- Reference style: According to the “Vancouver” style, PLOS One requires the following: ”In the text, cite the reference number in square brackets (e.g., “We used the techniques developed by our colleagues [19] to analyze the data”). PLOS uses the numbered citation (citation-sequence) method and first six authors, et al.” ( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-references).

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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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PONE-D-23-25128R1Identifying meta-research with researchers as study subjects: protocol for a scoping reviewPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Laynor,

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. Reviewer 2 has important points that should be considered.  Please submit your revised manuscript by May 04 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,

Lutz Bornmann

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does the manuscript provide a valid rationale for the proposed study, with clearly identified and justified research questions?

The research question outlined is expected to address a valid academic problem or topic and contribute to the base of knowledge in the field.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Is the protocol technically sound and planned in a manner that will lead to a meaningful outcome and allow testing the stated hypotheses?

The manuscript should describe the methods in sufficient detail to prevent undisclosed flexibility in the experimental procedure or analysis pipeline, including sufficient outcome-neutral conditions (e.g. necessary controls, absence of floor or ceiling effects) to test the proposed hypotheses and a statistical power analysis where applicable. As there may be aspects of the methodology and analysis which can only be refined once the work is undertaken, authors should outline potential assumptions and explicitly describe what aspects of the proposed analyses, if any, are exploratory.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

**********

3. Is the methodology feasible and described in sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicable?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors described where all data underlying the findings will be made available when the study is complete?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception, at the time of publication. 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: No

**********

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 and, if applicable, provide comments about issues authors must address before this protocol can be accepted for publication. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about research or publication ethics.

You may also provide optional suggestions and comments to authors that they might find helpful in planning their study.

(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript is a protocol for the search strategy to identify studies that have scientific researchers as the studied population. This is intended as a preliminary step for a literature search for an eventual scoping review on subject of research about reserachers. The pointed out small error has been corrected. I consider the protocal ready for publication.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is about meta-research with researchers as subjects. A registered report protocol was suggested to conduct a meta-research study on this topic with the help of bibliometrics.

The manuscript addresses a very interesting and important topic not only for the field of “quantitative science studies” and is written in a clear and concise manner. I appreciate the revision that were done to improve the manuscript The following concerns should be considered in the revision:

- Meta-research: The introduction is essentially based on a presentation of a new method, meta-research, but the real issue is the question of researchers as subjects of scientific studies and how research in this area can be synthesised. Meta-research is one of several possible methods, along with meta-analysis and systematic review, to address this question. I recommend starting with the research gap and then presenting meta-research as an approach to answering the question.

- Motivating the research question: In my view there is no sufficient derivation of the research question from the research literature (e.g., quantitative scientific studies) on questions where the researchers themselves were made the subject of the research. Reference is made to a "body of literature", but no literature is cited, although a body of empirical literature must be assumed. The question remains as to the scientific background against which the results in the registered report can be interpreted and used.

- Registered report protocol: I wonder why this study was submitted as a registered report protocol. Registered report protocols are useful if you have formulated a clear research question, hypotheses, and an experimental design to test the hypotheses. This makes it possible to publish results in the subsequent study that contradict the original hypotheses. In the study plan presented no hypotheses are formulated; it is an exploratory study. A potential risk of bias is not recognisable. The plan for the data analysis and reporting is vague (e.g., tabular reports, thematic analyses, narrative summaries). Results of a preliminary study with a bibliographic database are not reported (e.g., potential number of studies, text-mining for key words). A sufficient justification for the type of article is missing.

- Component B: It was stated (p. 9) that “These names are then combined with a series of keywords identifying actions performed by researchers as study subjects”. I wonder where these keywords (e.g., engaged, …) come from. Important verbs as for example “investigate” or “conduct” are missing. The revision should give some reasons for the selection of keywords for actions.

- Funding: The financial disclosure stated that "funding was received from the National Institute of Aging (NIA)". This raises the question of who will fund the subsequent study.

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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.

Identifying meta-research with researchers as study subjects: protocol for a scoping review

PONE-D-23-25128R2

Dear Dr. Laynor,

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 will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, 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,

Lutz Bornmann

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does the manuscript provide a valid rationale for the proposed study, with clearly identified and justified research questions?

The research question outlined is expected to address a valid academic problem or topic and contribute to the base of knowledge in the field.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Is the protocol technically sound and planned in a manner that will lead to a meaningful outcome and allow testing the stated hypotheses?

The manuscript should describe the methods in sufficient detail to prevent undisclosed flexibility in the experimental procedure or analysis pipeline, including sufficient outcome-neutral conditions (e.g. necessary controls, absence of floor or ceiling effects) to test the proposed hypotheses and a statistical power analysis where applicable. As there may be aspects of the methodology and analysis which can only be refined once the work is undertaken, authors should outline potential assumptions and explicitly describe what aspects of the proposed analyses, if any, are exploratory.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Is the methodology feasible and described in sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicable?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors described where all data underlying the findings will be made available when the study is complete?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception, at the time of publication. 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

**********

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

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above and, if applicable, provide comments about issues authors must address before this protocol can be accepted for publication. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about research or publication ethics.

You may also provide optional suggestions and comments to authors that they might find helpful in planning their study.

(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: All the reviewer's comments have been taken into account in the revision process. I very much appreciate the changes that have been made to improve the manuscript. I look forward to the publication and, especially, to the later results of the project.

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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

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