Dear Dr. Kawazoe,

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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ACADEMIC EDITOR: Please insert comments here and delete this placeholder text when finished.

• Address all comments by reviewers, especial those on the attached documents from reviewer 1 and 3.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Immaculate Sabelile Tenza, PhD

Guest Editor

PLOS One

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Please update your Data Availability statement in the submission form accordingly.

4. In the online submission form, you indicated that the data sets are available upon request from: kawazoe@nucba.ac.jp

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Additional Editor Comments :

Thank you for choosing our journal for publication

Kindly respond to the reviewers comments

Language editing is recommended to the manuscript

[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?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: N/A

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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

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: The manuscript has a potential to contribute to the body of knowledge. There are minor corrections as indicated in the uploaded file which, when addressed can improve the quality of the manuscript. The author is directed to the uploaded file for detailed comments

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is well written and data well presented. However, being the first study of its kind, the authors may rephrase their first sentence in their abstract to read .."their healthy literacy as a key concern for ensuring equitable access to healthcare is unknown." Further, under the section named Data analysis, the authors have stated the software used and the descriptive analyses, however, they need to specify the tests and model (s) used in the study.

Reviewer #3: Abstract: Specify the health literacy tools used (HLS-SF12, funHLS).

Methods: Clarify the recruitment window (28/07/2024 to 16/01/2025 seems unusually long or is a typo for 2023-2024?).

Ethics: The consent procedure ("consent... considered to be given by the act of completing the questionnaire") should be explicitly labeled as implied consent. in scientific research informed consent is often best practice.

References: Formatting is inconsistent (some titles capitalized, others not). Check journal style.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dr Gopolang Gause

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr Patrick M. Mutua

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-25-55029_reviewer.pdf

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-25-55029.pdf

Health literacy assessment and healthcare access difficulties of Vietnamese migrants in Japan: a cross-sectional study

PONE-D-25-55029R1

Dear Dr. Kawazoe,

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,

Immaculate Sabelile Tenza, PhD

Guest Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: