PONE-D-24-41981Essential criteria for reporting of aromatherapy-focused research in humans: An international Delphi consensus study protocolPLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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“I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Membership on the board of ARQAT”

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4. One of the noted authors is a group or consortium [ARQAT Group Amanda May-Fitzgerald, Denise Joswiak, Bethany Unger]. In addition to naming the author group, please list the individual authors and affiliations within this group in the acknowledgments section of your manuscript. Please also indicate clearly a lead author for this group along with a contact email address.

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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

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?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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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.

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(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study is very interested.

I have enquiry about:

- Have you considered focusing more on the participation of experts from countries known for their abundance of aromatic plants and essential oils?

Please explain all of abbreviations in this manuscript.

Reviewer #2: • The reviewer thanks the author for their effort. The article is well written. The delivered results are interesting both from a theoretical and practical point of view. A good paper, interesting, and is worthy of being published in this journal. However, there are some minor revisions, which must first be made. The abstract should clearly indicate the relevance of the work for international research (with number and academic percentages).

1- Introduction part is very poor, the author should support the current study with previous study and present the motivation of the current study (most of references are more than 10 years old. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2024.110022).

2- Improve the aim of the current study and relate this aim with the abstract.

3- Figure 4 needs more discussion in the text and the author mention all compounds.

4- Please revise all abbreviation.

5- Number all section

6- Please, the author should valorize the conclusion with more details and mention the future recommendation part to help other researchers in the future.

7- The paper has several mistakes and errors. Kindly review the manuscript again.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Abdulrazzaq Yahya Al-Khazzan

Reviewer #2: No

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Essential criteria for reporting of aromatherapy-focused research in humans: An international Delphi consensus study protocol

PONE-D-24-41981R1

Dear Marian Reven

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,

Muhammad Junaid Farrukh

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: