PONE-D-25-54130An empirical study of drone medical logistics transportation in a multi-campus model of Chinese public hospitals: real-world data-driven validation of timeliness and application effectsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Long,

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 Dec 19 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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Zeashan Hameed Khan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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5. Thank you for stating the following financial disclosure:

“This work was supported by National Institute of Hospital Administration [grant number 2025RWE023]; Sichuan Province Health Information Center [grant number 2021ZXKY06012]; Sichuan Province Health Information Society [grant number 2022051]; and Sichuan Provincial Hospital Association [grant number SCZB013].”

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“This work was supported by National Institute of Hospital Administration [grant number 2025RWE023]; Sichuan Province Health Information Center [grant number 2021ZXKY06012]; Sichuan Province Health Information Society [grant number 2022051]; and Sichuan Provincial Hospital Association [grant number SCZB013]”

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Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows:

“This work was supported by National Institute of Hospital Administration [grant number 2025RWE023]; Sichuan Province Health Information Center [grant number 2021ZXKY06012]; Sichuan Province Health Information Society [grant number 2022051]; and Sichuan Provincial Hospital Association [grant number SCZB013].”

Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

7. 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:

This paper describes an empirical study of drone medical logistics transportation in a multi-campus model of Chinese public hospitals by evaluating the real-world data-driven validation of timeliness and application effects. The paper requires significant improvements before it can be further considered for publication in PLOS One.

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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

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

Reviewer #1: No

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 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

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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

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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: 1. The abstract includes excessive numerical data and statistical details, which make it difficult to follow and obscure the main findings. The authors should summarize key performance outcomes concisely and focus on the broader implications of UAV-based logistics rather than listing every numerical result.

2. Although the study claims to “pioneer” UAV feasibility evaluation for medical logistics, it lacks a clear explanation of what distinguishes this work from existing studies in medical UAV transport. The authors should also acknowledge methodological or operational limitations—such as regulatory, weather, or payload constraints—to make the abstract more balanced and realistic.

3. The introduction should clearly conclude with a distinct paragraph that highlights the novel contributions of your work.

4. The literature review should benefit from more explorations of previous studies.

5. The discussion section needs to be expanded to more thoroughly analyze the results.

6. The first paragraph of the conclusion should succinctly summarize the contributions of the study in past tense.

7. The second paragraph of the conclusion should provide clear and actionable future recommendations.

8. Some equations are not properly cited.

9. Visualizations from Table 3 would add good value to the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: Paper Review and Comments

1. Title and Abstract

• Title: An empirical study of drone medical logistics transportation in a multi-campus model of Chinese public hospitals: real-world data-driven validation of timeliness and application effects

The introduction section should provide a clearer explanation of the aim and motivation of the study, as the current version is brief and lacks sufficient context. Additional references and detailed explanations should be incorporated to strengthen the introduction. The research objectives are not explicitly stated and should be clearly outlined to guide readers regarding the purpose and focus of the paper. The related work section could be enhanced by including more relevant and recent studies to provide a stronger foundation for the research.

The conclusion section could be improved by providing a more detailed summary of the findings and highlighting the key contributions of the study. While the paper is generally readable, minor grammatical issues should be revised to improve clarity and overall presentation. The reference list is limited and should be extended with additional relevant and recent works, and the formatting of references should be made consistent and professional.

Figures and tables should be discussed in greater detail within the text to improve interpretation and context. All figures should be properly referred to in the text and briefly explained. Tables should have their captions positioned above the table, and the content should be explained in more detail for clarity. Each equation or algorithm should be fully explained, including a description of all parameters used.

The introduction could benefit from incorporating the following references to enhance depth and recency:

A. J. Moshayedi, Y. Xie, M. Sharifdoust, and A. S. Khan, "Evaluating OMNI robot navigation with SLAM in CoppeliaSim: Hemangiomas and nonhomogeneous paths," J. Robot. Res. (JRR), vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7–14;

10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3355278;

doi:10.5829/ije.2025.38.07a.07.

Additionally, the authors are encouraged to address the following questions to clarify and strengthen the paper:

• What are the main objectives of the paper?

• How did environmental factors such as weather conditions, wind speed, or visibility affect UAV performance and flight time during the study period?

• What are the main technical or regulatory challenges that currently limit large-scale deployment of UAV logistics in public hospitals across China?

• Could you elaborate on how the proposed UAV logistics framework could be integrated with existing hospital information systems to ensure seamless coordination and real-time tracking of medical materials?

Overall, while the study presents valuable insights, the paper format and presentation should be revised according to the conference template. Major revisions are recommended before acceptance.

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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.

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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[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

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

PONE-D-25-54130R1An empirical study of drone medical logistics transportation in a multi-campus model of Chinese public hospitals: real-world data-driven validation of timeliness and application effectsPLOS One

Dear Dr. Long,

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 Mar 26 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,

Zeashan Hameed Khan, Ph.D.

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.

Additional Editor Comments:

Thank you for submitting the revised manuscript. Although the major concerns are addressed, some minor corrections are still required.

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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 #2: All comments have been addressed

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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: (No Response)

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: (No Response)

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. 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: The revisions are accepted, please update the manuscript as it has some typos and needs proofreading.

Reviewer #2: the authors respond to all my concern and can be published ,the authors respond to all my concern and can be published

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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[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.

An empirical study of drone medical logistics transportation in a multi-campus model of Chinese public hospitals: real-world data-driven validation of timeliness and application effects

PONE-D-25-54130R2

Dear Dr. Long,

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.

An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. For questions related to billing, please contact billing support.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Zeashan Hameed Khan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

The revised version has been evaluated for correctness and compliance as per the reviewer's comments and it can be accepted in the present form.

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 #2: All comments have been addressed

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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: (No Response)

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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: 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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: authors respond all my concerns and can be published

authors respond all my concerns and can be published

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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: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Ata Jahangir Moshayedi

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