PONE-D-24-12796The presence of resinous included phloem indicative of genuine or fake agarwoodPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Liu,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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“Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation (822MS145); the project of medical and health science and technology innovation engineering of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2021-1-I2M-032);Hainan Provincial Nanhai xinxing Science and Technology Innovation Talent Platform Project (NHXXRCXM202341); Hainan Provincial Nanhai xinxing Science and Technology Innovation Talent Platform Project (NHXXRCXM202341); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.81703660); the earmarked fund for CARS (CARS-21).”

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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: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: 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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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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: No

Reviewer #2: 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: This work describes the method for identifying authentic agarwood.

General observations:

1. The language needs improvement.

2. The supplementary information can form a part of the main text.

3. Data related to the anatomical characteristics and be provided as supplementary information.

The sectionwise comments are provided as attachment.

Reviewer #2: 1. The manuscript is very flimsy in its scientific content and poor in language. It needs a major revision before being considered further for evaluation.

2. The authors have included many paragraphs that are irrelevant; it seems like they were included just to increase the volume of the text.

3. The details of any statistical analysis conducted are not clear.

4. Is the repeatability of the experiments doubtful?

5. The title of the manuscript is inappropriate and does not spell out the objective of the study clearly.

6. The manuscript contains many typographical errors.

7. The plagiarism of the manuscript may also be checked.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: SHARADA MALLUBHOTLA

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Reviewers Comments Article-240128.docx

Attachment

Submitted filename: Article-240128 with comments.docx

Resinous included phloem as a key indicator of authentic or fake agarwood

PONE-D-24-12796R1

Dear Dr. Liu,

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,

Pankaj Bhardwaj, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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: All comments have been addressed

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: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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 #1: Yes

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

**********

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: All corrections / suggestions in the article - The presence of resinous included phloem indicative of genuine or fake agarwood have been addressed. The article can be accepted.

Reviewer #2: The authors have addressed the comments to my satisfaction.

The statistial analysis an important component of practical research has been substantially added to the manuscript.

The manuscript can now be accepted after formatting the references as per journal guidelines.

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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: Yes: SHARADA MALLUBHOTLA

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