PONE-D-24-40368PCB Defect Detection Based on Pseudo-inverse Transformation and YOLOv5PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wang,

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Kind regards,

Azim Uddin, Ph.D.

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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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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: 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: 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: Comments on manuscript ID PONE-D-24-40368:

Title: “PCB Defect Detection Based on Pseudo-inverse Transformation and YOLOv5”

Some key suggestions are listed below:

1. There are certain grammatical and misspelling issues noted throughout the text, like “TOLOv5 is further improved using Transformer”. Please check and make sure to address them.

2. The abstract is not well written. The abstract could benefit from a more concise presentation of key points. Some sentences feel lengthy and complex, which can reduce readability.

3. The key contributions of your proposed method are missing in introduction section.

4. The methodology should explain how the PCB-DD dataset was constructed, including details about the number of samples, types of defects included, resolution of images, and data augmentation techniques. This information is critical for replicability and for understanding the dataset’s role in enhancing model performance. It would be useful to compare the proposed PCB-DD dataset against existing publicly available datasets (if any exist) to demonstrate the model's applicability in broader scenarios.

5. The conclusion can benefit from a broader reflection on the potential impact of the proposed model beyond the experiment. How might this technology affect industries that rely on PCB production? What future applications, besides just PCB-DD, could benefit from the advancements in the model?

Reviewer #2: Title: “PCB Defect Detection Based on Pseudo-inverse Transformation and YOLOv5”

Some key suggestions are:

1. Some misspellings and grammatical issues noted throughout the text. Please check and make sure to address them all.

2. The term "pseudo-inverse transformation" is used without prior context. Since it is a key component of the method, a brief explanation or rationale for choosing this approach would enhance understanding for readers unfamiliar with this technique.

3. The mention of "Transformer is introduced to improve YOLOv5" is quite brief. It would be helpful to provide a bit more insight into how the Transformer architecture is incorporated and why it enhances the performance of YOLOv5 in this specific context.

4. The abstract can be reorganized slightly to follow a more typical structure: problem statement, method, results, and significance.

5. The methodology does not explain how PIT is applied or why it was chosen over other traditional methods like Fourier transforms or wavelet-based methods. Including a brief explanation of why PIT is particularly well-suited for PCB image restoration would strengthen the methodology.

6. Dataset details are insufficient

7. The proposed methodology experimental results are not compared with any state of the art methods.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PCB Defect Detection Based on Pseudo-inverse Transformation and YOLOv5

PONE-D-24-40368R1

Dear Dr. Wang,

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,

Azim Uddin, 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

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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: Yes

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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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: (No Response)

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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: All the required changes are addressed properly in the revised version. I am satisfied now with the revised version now and agree to accept.

Reviewer #2: All suggested comments have been carefully addressed, and detailed responses are provided in the revised manuscript.

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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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