Dear Dr. Hoang,

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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Billy Morara Tsima, MD MSc

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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

2. Thank you for stating in your Funding Statement:

[This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute under Award Number R01CA24481. TH received institutional funding to conduct the research at Sahlgrenska Academy.].

Please provide an amended statement that declares *all* the funding or sources of support (whether external or internal to your organization) received during this study, as detailed online in our guide for authors at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submit-now.  Please also include the statement “There was no additional external funding received for this study.” in your updated Funding Statement.

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3. In the online submission form, you indicated that [The datasets are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.].

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4. Please amend the manuscript submission data (via Edit Submission) to include author Thanh Ha-Lan Hoang.

5. Please amend your authorship list in your manuscript file to include author Thanh Hoang.

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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?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: The work demonstrates a rigorous research investigation with a defined objective, sound methods, and noteworthy findings. The study examines a pertinent public health concern and provides significant insights into dual tobacco use among PLWH in a particular low-resource environment. The manuscript is coherently organised and comprehensible.

Reviewer #2: Overall, a very well written and pertinent initiative. As most of my queries were addressed in the limitation section, I have only a few questions and some edits.

1-Were questionnaires used to assess

-Smoking risk perceptions

-Intention to quit smoking

-Internalized smoking stigma

Validated in any way prior to use?

2-Regarding recruitment, please specify if participants received a compensation and if so, what form?

Edits

In Data source section: Line 96 please define acronym NRT

In Measurement section: Line 129 ARV, Line 132 ART

In the Result section: Delete line 223, there is no Fig 2.

I commend the authors for the nicely described measurement section and Figure 1 visual.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Exploring factors associated with dual tobacco smoking among people living with HIV receiving care at HIV outpatient clinics in Hanoi, Vietnam

PONE-D-25-25187R1

Dear Dr. Hoang,

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,

Billy Morara Tsima, MD MSc

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: