PONE-D-24-36565Food-based indices for the assessment of nutritive value and environmental impact of meals and diets: A systematic review protocolPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Thomas,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

PONE-D-24-36565

Reviewed by: Hadi Alavi, AE, PLoS ONE

Authors have designed a study protocol to investigate Food-based indices for the assessment of nutritive values and environmental impacts of meals and diets. Results provide very valuable information to public and governmental sectors to support healthy and sustainable meal choices and diets. 
The MS was well designed, however it needs revision before being accepted for publication.

Abstract should be shorten. It is too long for the necessity and strength of the study. Please fix it in limited number of words. I believe it to be possible with max. 350 words.

L28: to express

L28: and should not be Italic.

L28: values

L37: impacts

L39: comma after guidelines

L42: in the present study as a substitute for here

L42: methodology to review food-based indices determined for ….

L49-53: Outcomes could be shorten.

L68: comma after land

L76: I think the best is to use environmental impacts through the MS. It is better than environmental impact. >>> L87, L89, L91, L112, L205 and more

L98: Similar to former comment, I think nutritive values 
could be considered as a substitute for nutritive value 
through the MS. >>> L112, L205

L111: These as a substitute for this (Many reason are aforementioned to stress strength of the present study).

L116 – 125: Please re-structure. Use of bullets is not common.

L126 – 130: Please re-structure. You may use: The present study was conducted to understand What food-based indices ….. and what are the methods used

L138 – 139: Pleas re-structure similar to previous comment

L144: formed in a checklist (Supplementary material – File #1) [18]. 


L150 – 151: Please omit “Search results will be downloaded and catalogued in EndNote version 21.3.”

L155: Supplementary material (File #2, appendix S1). Please use this formulation for citation of the supplementary material in the text. >>> L171

L157-158: please omit (science and social science index) 


L161: Rӧӧs et al. [21], Seconda et al. [22] and van Dooren et al. [23]. 


L172: Search string for bibliographic databases 


L180, L190, L240: reviewers? It may better to use “authors”. I am wondering reviewers are incorporated into study design

L195: will be used

L198: It may be better to use This criteria as a substitute for this review 


L208: This criteria will review …

L282: Data synthesis : Please describe this section in details. What will be done with data including statistical tests that may be useful to answer the questions (hypotheses)

L294 – 300: Authors may stress the impacts of nutritional values on health. For instance there are frequent studies highlighting the impacts of high-fat-diets on prevalence of diabetes, cognitive disorders and ….

L301 – 304: This is very important limitation, please discuss in detail. It might be used as a criteria to determine the eligibility of a study to be incorporated into Meta-analysis. For instance, if sample size for determination of nutritional values are well enough, if grouping of foods for determination f nutritional values was rational, etc

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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

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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

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

Descriptions of methods and materials in the protocol should be reported in sufficient detail for another researcher to reproduce all experiments and analyses. The protocol should describe the appropriate controls, sample size calculations, and replication needed to ensure that the data are robust and reproducible.

Reviewer #1: 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

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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

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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 presents clearly identified and justified research questions, and the methods provide sufficient detail to allow for reproduction.

Supporting information on PRISMA-P check list and search strings details for each database are accessible.

The protocol can be accepted for publication.

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Reviewer #1: No

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Food-based indices for the assessment of nutritive value and environmental impact of meals and diets: A systematic review protocol

PONE-D-24-36565R1

Dear Dr. Thomas,

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.

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Kind regards,

Sayyed Mohammad Hadi Alavi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: