Measurement properties of the sit-to-stand test in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis using the COSMIN guidelines

PONE-D-24-41006

Dear Dr. Farley,

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,

Pasyodun Koralage Buddhika Mahesh

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

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

Reviewer #2: 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

Reviewer #2: 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

Reviewer #2: 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: 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

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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: Introduction and the justification for the study written well and adequately. Methodology to be used is sound and feasible.

Reviewer #2: Title: Clear and well written

Abstract: Satisfactory

Main paper

Introduction: Good

Research question: Satisfactory

Materials and methods: Satisfactory

S1: Satisfactory

S2 not available

What are the main claims of the paper and how significant are they for the discipline? They have mentioned this clearly in the Significance part

Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature? Yes

Have the authors treated the literature fairly? Yes

Do the data and analyses fully support the claims? Not applicable

If not, what other evidence is required? Not applicable

PLOS ONE encourages authors to publish detailed protocols and algorithms as supporting information online. Do any particular methods used in the manuscript warrant such treatment? No

If a protocol is already provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? Not applicable

If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred? Not applicable

If the paper is considered unsuitable for publication in its present form, does the study itself show sufficient potential that the authors should be encouraged to resubmit a revised version? Not applicable

Are original data deposited in appropriate repositories and accession/version numbers provided for genes, proteins, mutants, diseases, etc.? Not applicable

Does the study conform to any relevant guidelines such as CONSORT, MIAME, QUORUM, STROBE, and the Fort Lauderdale agreement? Yes

Are details of the methodology sufficient to allow the experiments to be reproduced? Yes

Is any software created by the authors freely available? Not applicable

Is the manuscript well organized and written clearly enough to be accessible to non-specialists? yes

Is it your opinion that this manuscript contains an NIH-defined experiment of Dual Use concern? Not applicable

The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Ambepitiyawaduge Pubudu De Silva

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