Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJuly 19, 2023
Decision Letter - Anthony A. Olashore, Editor

PONE-D-23-22708

Does LSD confer lasting psychological resilience? An investigation of naturalistic users experiencing job loss

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr.  Korman,

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Anthony A. Olashore, MBCHB, PhD, FWACP

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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: I Don't Know

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: This is an interesting and important study. In short, the article is well constructed and well written.

I have a minor suggestion. The methodology section describes "Survey respondents were randomly selected from across the U.S. and compensated $30 for participating."

According to me, this make slight confusion with the statement "Using purposeful respondent exclusion criteria, about purposeful exclusion criteria". Is this necessary to highlight the temporal precedence? Cause every study has some exclusion criteria with the logic. Can the statement be modified in any other format?

Did the compensation of $30 for participating hamper the authenticity of the study? I think, a statement regarding this issue would be better.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is technically sound with conclusions clearly demonstrable from the data presented, the statistical analysis is rigorous and appropriate, the data is from a publicly available dataset, and is written in fully intelligible standard English.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Olorunfemi Oladotun Ogunwobi

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Revision 1

Review Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: This is an interesting and important study. In short, the article is well constructed and well written.

//Author response: Thank you for your kind words and I’m happy to hear that you found the study interesting and important.//

I have a minor suggestion. The methodology section describes "Survey respondents were randomly selected from across the U.S. and compensated $30 for participating."

According to me, this make slight confusion with the statement "Using purposeful respondent exclusion criteria, about purposeful exclusion criteria". Is this necessary to highlight the temporal precedence? Cause every study has some exclusion criteria with the logic. Can the statement be modified in any other format?

Did the compensation of $30 for participating hamper the authenticity of the study? I think, a statement regarding this issue would be better.

// Author Response: Thank you for bringing this lack of clarity regarding the exclusion criteria applied in the analyses to my attention. I can see why my sole reference to the “purposeful exclusion criteria” in the original submissions’ abstract was unclear and needed modifying. To be clear, because the study data draw on a cross-sectional survey panel, purposeful exclusion criteria are indeed necessary to establish temporal precedence among the variables in my study (i.e., LSD use and psychological distress as shown graphically in Fig 1).

It is true that every study has some type of exclusion criteria. However, what I now try to highlight in my revised Abstract and Method section (pages 2 & 7) is that by excluding data on unemployed individuals who used LSD since their unemployment began, I can better explore whether LSD use prior to their job loss can predict psychological distress following their job loss. I hope my minor edits have helped clarify this in my revision.

Thank you as well for bringing your concerns regarding the payment of participants to my attention. It is important to understand that the NSDUH survey is a long survey with a large array of questions regarding individuals’ drug use, health, and general personal situation. Although I was not involved in the data collection (my manuscript makes secondary use of the data), I assume that the $30 compensation was necessary to incentivize enough respondents to participate. That being said, I do not think compensation for participation reduced the authenticity of the data (and as a result my findings) because, as reported in the article, participants were randomly sampled across the United States. This means that financially-motivated participants with little desire for answering the survey questions honestly could not self-select into the study (as would be the case for studies collecting data via online platforms like MTurk or Prolific). Furthermore, considering that participants would be unaware of my particular interest in testing the link between LSD use and psychological distress following job loss, it is unclear to me how their response patterns would explain the current study’s findings. Although this might be the case for experimental studies using overly salient experimental conditions, my findings make secondary use of a large, openly available dataset. Please let me know if you have additional concerns regarding this point.//

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is technically sound with conclusions clearly demonstrable from the data presented, the statistical analysis is rigorous and appropriate, the data is from a publicly available dataset, and is written in fully intelligible standard English.

//Author Response: Thank you very much.//

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response_to_Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Anthony A. Olashore, Editor

Does LSD confer lasting psychological resilience? An investigation of naturalistic users experiencing job loss

PONE-D-23-22708R1

Dear Dr. Korman,

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,

Anthony A. Olashore, MD, PhD.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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 #3: (No Response)

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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 #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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 #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 #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 #3: A possible limitation is the average or unemployment duration of Job loss iin relation to the distress I feel it will add more to the rich manuscript. The limitations were well elucidated

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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 #3: No

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Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Anthony A. Olashore, Editor

PONE-D-23-22708R1

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Korman,

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team.

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* All references, tables, and figures are properly cited

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* There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset

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Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. 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.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Anthony A. Olashore

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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