PONE-D-24-33951Systematic Identification of Needle Fish (Belonidae) Species using Molecular Genetic and Morphological Markers in the Mediterranean SeaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Turan,

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Marco Albano, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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- Morphological and genetic characteristics of garfish Belone belone (L., 1760) (Belonidae, Teleostei) population from the southern Bulgarian Black Sea coast (DOI:10.3897/natureconservation.54.113071)

-Family Belonidae Bonaparte 1832 (https://www.calacademy.org/sites/default/files/assets/docs/belonidae.pdf)

-Existence of Belone svetovidovi Collette & Parin, 1970 in the Marmara Sea and Black Sea Coasts of Türkiye (doi: 10.28978/nesciences.1331296)

(among others)

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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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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: Manuscript need to be checked by a native English Speaker. for details, please also see the attached file.

species name must be italicized.

what about topotyps and paratypes in discovered/renamed species?

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors,

the work presented in this study is particularly interesting because it offers valuable tools for the identification of species within the Belonidae family, which are known to be very similar to each other. The genetic and morphological approaches used here are crucial for clarifying the taxonomic status of these species, particularly in regions like the Mediterranean and Black Seas where they are distributed. However, several aspects of the manuscript need to be addressed to improve its clarity and overall quality (please refer to the comments in the attached PDF for detailed feedback). Some sections of the paper appear to be unclear and repetitive, which could confuse readers and detract from the strength of your findings. Additionally, the English language used throughout the manuscript requires revision to enhance readability and ensure that the scientific content is communicated effectively. You also need to consider and discuss Ablennes hians. In summary, while the study contributes valuable insights into the taxonomy of Belonidae species, careful attention to the points mentioned above will greatly improve the manuscript’s impact.

Reviewer #3: Comments to the Redactor and Authors

I thank the journal authorities and the Editor for handing me an opportunity to review a manuscript: “Systematic Identification of Needle Fish (Belonidae) Species using Molecular Genetic and Morphological Markers in the Mediterranean Sea”.

Despite a number of serious concerns, I am confident that this research is competent. Nevertheless, I also suggest that the scientific significance of this manuscript is not appropriate for the journal PLOS ONE. In this manuscript authors try to clarify the taxonomic relationships between species within the genera Belone and Tylosaurus, using markers from the mitochondrial genome and morphological traits.

While the authors have used a significant number of specimens, the results they present are not of sufficient interest for a broad-ranging, multidisciplinary journal like PLOS ONE. Instead, I recommend that this work be transferred to a more specialized, thematic ichthyological journal that would be better suited to this manuscript.

General comments:

Authors need to significantly improve the quality of the manuscript, because nowadays it is not suitable for reading and understanding.

1. First of all, the manuscript is full of misleading typos, missing punctuation marks, and grammar mistakes.

2. Second, the English in this manuscript should be significantly improved.

3. Third, the quality of figures (maybe due to transfer to PDF) is low; it is impossible to read the legends on the figures.

4. Fourth, I did not find the NCBI numbers for COI and 12S rRNA sequences in the manuscript.

5. Fifth, today, and this is the rule, in taxonomic studies, it is necessary to use data not only from the mitochondrial genome but also from the nuclear genome. This is because the mitochondrial genome has predominant maternal inheritance.

Minor comments:

1. The manuscript title implies study of specimens from the Mediterranean Sea (not the Black Sea).

2. Along the title and text: Please change "needle fish" to "needlefish".

3. Gene names should be italicized in the manuscript.

4. Sub-species should be changed to subspecies in the text.

5. If a name of genera is mentioned once, then it should be abbreviated further in the text.

6. It is necessary to add scales to Figures 9–11. The quality of Figures 4, 5, and 7–8 is poor, making it impossible to see anything in the phylogenetic trees. Figure 13 is unclear as to what it can show in evolutionary terms?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes:  Francesco Tiralongo

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-24-33951_reviewer.pdf

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-24-33951_REV1.pdf

Systematic Identification of Needlefish (Belonidae) Species using Molecular Genetic and Morphological Markers in the Mediterranean and Black Seas

PONE-D-24-33951R1

Dear Dr. Turan,

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,

Marco Albano, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Dear Authors,

thanks to have seriously interact with the reviewers during this editorial process, solving almost all their requests, or reasonably arguing different point of views which comes out.

Best regards

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 #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 #2: Yes

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

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 #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 #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 #2: Dear authors, I think that now, in its current form, the article can be accepted. All comments and suggestions were followed.

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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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