-->PONE-D-25-20021-->-->Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan-->-->PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Takakura,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 08 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Saeed Ahmed, MD, FAPA, FASAM

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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

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4. If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

Additional Editor Comments:

Your manuscript has been reviewed by our referees, who have provided valuable comments and suggestions. Please see the detailed feedback below to help you revise and improve your paper.

Reviewer #1: Attached is the PDF with suggested edits.

A few other limitations ti consider-

- Participants were self-selected individuals who applied for a telemedicine smoking cessation program via their health insurance association. This may lead to a population with higher motivation or resources for quitting smoking, which limits generalizability to all smokers.

- Data were collected from 20 medical institutions with widely varying sample sizes.

Variability in patient volume and potentially in clinical practices between sites could introduce site-level confounding or bias.

- Data such as smoking history, self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms were based on self-reported questionnaires.

This could lead to recall bias and misclassification.

-1,297 patients were excluded due to censoring (unclear follow-up status, lost to follow-up)

This could result in attrition bias.

-The cohort consisted of Japanese workers participating in a health-insurance-linked program, with most joining via their business sites. Findings may not generalize to unemployed individuals, non-Japanese populations, or those without access to similar healthcare systems or programs.

Reviewer #2: Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript which addresses a clinically important topic and contributes valuable insights into the comparative effectiveness of telemedicine vs face to face intervention in smoking cessation. Smoking is a major public health problem worldwide and addressing this issues and the investigation into telemedicine-based smoking cessation aligns with global shift in healthcare delivery, specially post COVID. The inclusion of over 3700 participants across multiple sites enhances the generalizability of findings with in the Japanese healthcare context. Clear primary and secondary outcomes, comparison with data from japan's MHLW adds contextual strengths and relevance. Authors have acknowledged potential selection bias, please clarify how patients were assigned face to face vs telemedicine on the basis of their preference, clinic assignment or another factor?. The manuscript contains frequent grammatical errors, would recommend proof reading. In intervention, consider including more details about the content and format of the 4 telemedicine sessions. Were there any specific modality of therapy, CBT, MI was utilized

Reviewer #3: The manuscript requires improvement.

The abstract needs to state how many participants for face-to-face. The results should highlight both telemedicine and face-to-face.

Line 46: Technically, the p-value cannot be zero (to use the symbol p < )

Table 1: 40 > to be revised to >40. Likewise for others 700 > and 75 >4 (to use ≤ or ≥ where applicable)

Table 1: Face-to-face data is to be included for comparison.

Table 3: 45< , > 25, 700 >, 75 > symbol used incorrectly (to use ≤ or ≥ where applicable). Figure 1: The figure requires revision to show the face-to-face arm.

Line 161-174: The section is to be divided according to telemedicine and face-to-face.

Table 2: Face-to-face data to be presented along with telemedicine data.

Line 184: To indicate the p-values for the comparison between completed vs not completed and abstinence vs non-abstinence.

Table 3: Separate analyses to be provided for telemedicine and face-to-face. Likewise, for Table 5.

Line 202: (P 0.000)?

Table 5: 45 <, > 25, over 4 days a week, 75 >, incorrect symbol was used. To use ≤ or ≥ where applicable. P-value is to be presented.

Please remove the underline for the confidence interval value, since the p-value is sufficient to indicate statistical significance. Similarly, the odds ratios (OR) should not be in bold.

For the adjustment analyses, the words adjusted and aOR are to be used where appropriate, including tables.

The fulfilment of the statistical tests' assumptions is to be stated e.g multicollinearity etc.

Model fit etc for logistic regression is to be presented.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->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: Yes

**********

-->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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

-->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: Attached is the PDF with suggested edits.

A few other limitations ti consider-

- Participants were self-selected individuals who applied for a telemedicine smoking cessation program via their health insurance association. This may lead to a population with higher motivation or resources for quitting smoking, which limits generalizability to all smokers.

- Data were collected from 20 medical institutions with widely varying sample sizes.

Variability in patient volume and potentially in clinical practices between sites could introduce site-level confounding or bias.

- Data such as smoking history, self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms were based on self-reported questionnaires.

This could lead to recall bias and misclassification.

-1,297 patients were excluded due to censoring (unclear follow-up status, lost to follow-up)

This could result in attrition bias.

-The cohort consisted of Japanese workers participating in a health-insurance-linked program, with most joining via their business sites. Findings may not generalize to unemployed individuals, non-Japanese populations, or those without access to similar healthcare systems or programs.

Reviewer #2: Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript which addresses a clinically important topic and contributes valuable insights into the comparative effectiveness of telemedicine vs face to face intervention in smoking cessation. Smoking is a major public health problem worldwide and addressing this issues and the investigation into telemedicine-based smoking cessation aligns with global shift in healthcare delivery, specially post COVID. The inclusion of over 3700 participants across multiple sites enhances the generalizability of findings with in the Japanese healthcare context. Clear primary and secondary outcomes, comparison with data from japan's MHLW adds contextual strengths and relevance. Authors have acknowledged potential selection bias, please clarify how patients were assigned face to face vs telemedicine on the basis of their preference, clinic assignment or another factor?. The manuscript contains frequent grammatical errors, would recommend proof reading. In intervention, consider including more details about the content and format of the 4 telemedicine sessions. Were there any specific modality of therapy, CBT, MI was utilized. Overall, this is a well-conducted large scale multi-center study that offers strong evidence supporting the use of telemedicine for smoking cessation.

Reviewer #3: The manuscript requires improvement.

The abstract needs to state how many participants for face-to-face. The results should highlight both telemedicine and face-to-face.

Line 46: Technically, the p-value cannot be zero (to use the symbol p < )

Table 1: 40 > to be revised to >40. Likewise for others 700 > and 75 >4 (to use ≤ or ≥ where applicable)

Table 1: Face-to-face data is to be included for comparison.

Table 3: 45< , > 25, 700 >, 75 > symbol used incorrectly (to use ≤ or ≥ where applicable). Figure 1: The figure requires revision to show the face-to-face arm.

Line 161-174: The section is to be divided according to telemedicine and face-to-face.

Table 2: Face-to-face data to be presented along with telemedicine data.

Line 184: To indicate the p-values for the comparison between completed vs not completed and abstinence vs non-abstinence.

Table 3: Separate analyses to be provided for telemedicine and face-to-face. Likewise, for Table 5.

Line 202: (P 0.000)?

Table 5: 45 <, > 25, over 4 days a week, 75 >, incorrect symbol was used. To use ≤ or ≥ where applicable. P-value is to be presented.

Please remove the underline for the confidence interval value, since the p-value is sufficient to indicate statistical significance. Similarly, the odds ratios (OR) should not be in bold.

For the adjustment analyses, the words adjusted and aOR are to be used where appropriate, including tables.

The fulfilment of the statistical tests' assumptions is to be stated e.g multicollinearity etc.

Model fit etc for logistic regression is to be presented.

**********

-->6. 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: Yes: Arun Prasad

Reviewer #2: Yes: Rajesh Mehta

Reviewer #3: No

**********

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Completed - PONE-D-25-20021_reviewer.pdf

-->PONE-D-25-20021R1-->-->Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Takakura,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 21 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

-->If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Saeed Ahmed, MD

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Journal Requirements:

If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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 #3: (No Response)

**********

-->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 #3: Partly

**********

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->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 #3: (No Response)

**********

-->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 #3: Yes

**********

-->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: Thank you for making the edits and responding to the queries on "Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan". Best of luck on publication!

Reviewer #3: Please check the categories and symbols in the tables thoroughly.

I was unable to locate some of the changes in the manuscript that the authors indicated.

**********

-->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: Yes: Arun Prasad

Reviewer #3: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

To ensure your figures meet our technical requirements, please review our figure guidelines: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures

You may also use PLOS’s free figure tool, NAAS, to help you prepare publication quality figures: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures#loc-tools-for-figure-preparation.

NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

-->

-->-->PONE-D-25-20021R2-->

Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan

PLOS One

Dear Dr. Takakura,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 27 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

-->If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Ali Blebil, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Journal Requirements:

1. If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

2. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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 #3: (No Response)

**********

-->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: Partly

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->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 #3: (No Response)

**********

-->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 #3: Yes

**********

-->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: Thanks for making essetial edits to the article "Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan"

Reviewer #3: The authors have not yet corrected the symbols in the tables. There is a difference between ≥ and >; for example, ≥ 700 includes 700, whereas > 700 does not.

Tables to be corrected:

Table 1: ≥700 and ≥75

Table 3: ≥ 45, ≥ 25. 4 days and above in a week, ≥ 700, ≥ 75

Table 5: ≥ 45, ≥ 25, 4 days and above in a week, ≥ 75

It is recommended that the authors have the tables/manuscript proofread by another person.

**********

-->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: Yes: Arun Prasad

Reviewer #3: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

To ensure your figures meet our technical requirements, please review our figure guidelines: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures

You may also use PLOS’s free figure tool, NAAS, to help you prepare publication quality figures: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures#loc-tools-for-figure-preparation.

NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

-->-->

-->PONE-D-25-20021R3-->-->Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Takakura,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 03 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

-->

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

As the corresponding author, your ORCID iD is verified in the submission system and will appear in the published article. PLOS supports the use of ORCID, and we encourage all coauthors to register for an ORCID iD and use it as well. Please encourage your coauthors to verify their ORCID iD within the submission system before final acceptance, as unverified ORCID iDs will not appear in the published article. Only  the individual author can complete the verification step; PLOS staff cannot  verify ORCID iDs on behalf of authors.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Ali Blebil, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Journal Requirements:

1. If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

2. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments :

Dear Author,

Please address the reviewer(s) comments.

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 #4: All comments have been addressed

**********

-->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 #4: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #4: Yes

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Reviewer #4: Yes

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Reviewer #4: Line 173: A total of 1514 + 1202 is more than the total of 3708 patients who participated in the smoking cessation program.

Lines from 181 to 184 are repeated.

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Reviewer #4: Yes: ABDULRAZZAQ YAHYA AHMED AL-KHAZZAN

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Enhancing the long-term abstinence rate of smoking through telemedicine: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Japan

PONE-D-25-20021R4

Dear Dr. Takakura,

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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