Peer Review History
Original SubmissionJuly 29, 2020 |
---|
PONE-D-20-23585 Decreased incidence, virus transmission capacity, and severity of COVID-19 at altitude on the American continent PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Soliz, 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. You will see that one of the reviewers had major concerns about the methodological approach in your study. You may decide to revise parts of the study and/or to justify your original approach. In any case, I would appreciate to see all the reviewer's concerns addressed in the rebuttal letter and where possible, clarified in the manuscript as well. With this decision of "major revision", we want to give you the opportunity to write a rebuttal. I hope you understand that at this point, we cannot guarantee that we will accept the revised manuscript. Please submit your revised manuscript by Dec 03 2020 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:
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: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Kristien Verdonck Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: 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 2. In ethics statement in the manuscript and in the online submission form, please provide additional information about the database used in your retrospective study. Specifically, please ensure that you have discussed whether all data were fully anonymized before you accessed them and/or whether the IRB or ethics committee waived the requirement for informed consent. If patients provided informed written consent to have their data used in research, please include this information. 3. Please ensure that you refer to Figure 3 in your text as, if accepted, production will need this reference to link the reader to the figure. 4.We note that [Figure(s) 3] in your submission contain [map/satellite] images which may be copyrighted. All PLOS content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which means that the manuscript, images, and Supporting Information files will be freely available online, and any third party is permitted to access, download, copy, distribute, and use these materials in any way, even commercially, with proper attribution. For these reasons, we cannot publish previously copyrighted maps or satellite images created using proprietary data, such as Google software (Google Maps, Street View, and Earth). For more information, see our copyright guidelines: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/licenses-and-copyright. We require you to either (1) present written permission from the copyright holder to publish these figures specifically under the CC BY 4.0 license, or (2) remove the figures from your submission: 1. You may seek permission from the original copyright holder of Figure(s) [3] to publish the content specifically under the CC BY 4.0 license. We recommend that you contact the original copyright holder with the Content Permission Form (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=7c09/content-permission-form.pdf) and the following text: “I request permission for the open-access journal PLOS ONE to publish XXX under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please be aware that this license allows unrestricted use and distribution, even commercially, by third parties. Please reply and provide explicit written permission to publish XXX under a CC BY license and complete the attached form.” Please upload the completed Content Permission Form or other proof of granted permissions as an "Other" file with your submission. In the figure caption of the copyrighted figure, please include the following text: “Reprinted from [ref] under a CC BY license, with permission from [name of publisher], original copyright [original copyright year].” 2. If you are unable to obtain permission from the original copyright holder to publish these figures under the CC BY 4.0 license or if the copyright holder’s requirements are incompatible with the CC BY 4.0 license, please either i) remove the figure or ii) supply a replacement figure that complies with the CC BY 4.0 license. Please check copyright information on all replacement figures and update the figure caption with source information. If applicable, please specify in the figure caption text when a figure is similar but not identical to the original image and is therefore for illustrative purposes only. The following resources for replacing copyrighted map figures may be helpful: USGS National Map Viewer (public domain): http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth (public domain): http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/clickmap/ Maps at the CIA (public domain): https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/cia-maps-publications/index.html NASA Earth Observatory (public domain): http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Landsat: http://landsat.visibleearth.nasa.gov/ USGS EROS (Earth Resources Observatory and Science (EROS) Center) (public domain): http://eros.usgs.gov/# Natural Earth (public domain): http://www.naturalearthdata.com/ 5. We note you have included a table to which you do not refer in the text of your manuscript. Please ensure that you refer to Table 1 in your text; if accepted, production will need this reference to link the reader to the Table. [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: No Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: I Don't Know Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 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 ********** 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 ********** 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: The hypothesis of the article is based on an interesting observation, that infection attack rate and infection severity decrease with altitude. It is important to investigate whether that observation still stands when you would take reporting, demographic or epidemiological factors into account. However, the methods used by the authors are not appropriate and sufficient to address the research question, and use rather unconventional parameters to investigate infection rates and disease severity, which makes it difficult to interpret the robustness of the results. One would expect a estimation of location-specific reproduction numbers or infection/disease incidence and infection or case fatality risks when comparing infection rates and disease severity. Instead, a number of rather complex parameters are calculated, without explaining why they are calculated that way. For instance, incidence is expressed as the natural logarithm of the number of reported cases divided by population density. Separately, a SEIR model is built, but it is unclear why, and what outcome measure this had to provide. Moreover, it is unclear how the number of infections has been estimated as part of the SEIR model, or if that was deducted from it. For severity, a 'death-to-case' ratio and pct recovered patients were calculated, rather than an infection fatality risk, which would have been more appropriate. Moreover, it is unclear at what stage during the outbreak these were estimated (during the exponential increase? which would overestimate the number of cases as compared to deaths), and it seems like no reporting+symptom to death time lag (delay between symptoms and death, and a delay in reporting deaths) were considered. Most importantly, potential third factors, which could importantly confound the association between altitude and incidence or severity, such are differences in population age structure between populations living in places with higher or lower altitude, are not taken into account. For Figure 1, it is unclear why 4 figures are provided, and to what extent they differ. Are b, c and d just zooms of the first figure? why are some points which were shown in fig 1a missing in 1c? For Figure 2, it is unclear what the percentages stand for, and what the different dashed lines stand for. The figure is described as 'effect', but it is a mere comparison of two observations. For Figure 3, it is unclear to me why population density would not already be taken into account when calculating incidence in a conventional way. I would be very interested to know why you use a natural logarithm and divide by km2. For Figure 4, comparing countries, stating quarantine measures were comparable, does not seem an appropriate way to answer your research question, for many reasons including some stated above (pop age structure, reporting differences, etc.) Reviewer #2: Research Article is informative and interesting. Manuscript is also well written and presented. The aricle presents epidemiological data as of 23rd May. Authors may add some more recent literature supporting their finding (if any!) and any other contrasting report (if any!). ********** 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: No Reviewer #2: 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.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. |
Revision 1 |
PONE-D-20-23585R1 Decreased incidence, virus transmission capacity, and severity of COVID-19 at altitude on the American continent PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Soliz, 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 27 2021 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:
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: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Kristien Verdonck Academic Editor PLOS ONE [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 #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 #3: No ********** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? 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 #3: Yes ********** 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 #3: No ********** 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 #3: Peer review: Decreased incidence, virus transmission capacity, and severity of COVID-19 at altitude on the American continent Summary This study aims to evaluate the impact of altitude on the manifestation of SARS-CoV-2. In particular, the correlation between altitude and incidence of COVID-19, it’s severity, and the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. The authors focus on the countries of the American continent. Overall, the authors are transparent about the methods used and their thought process. However, the manuscript can do with some good editing. More specifically, without wanting to come across mean or rude, it appears the manuscript is not written by someone with a statistical background and can do with more clarification (see below for more detail) as well as a rewrite, e.g. pp 6 line 107-115, terms like “the analysed variable” are not conventional terms to use, rather something along the lines of “dependent variable”. Also, sections in the results are better suited in the discussion and/or methods. Moreover, the manuscript comprises quite some repetition in methods used (e.g. normalised and logarithmatised is repeated many times unnecessarily). Finally, and perhaps more importantly, I have some doubts about the methods employed and interpretation of the results, among which the methods used to assess the respective transmissibility in the ‘highlands’ vs ‘lowlands’. Major comments - The authors use the Pearson correlation coefficient to assess among others the linear relationship between altitude and incidence rates and incidence and population density. o First of all, this test is valid when both variables of concern are normally distributed. Could the authors please confirm whether they assessed normality in their variable distributions? Otherwise a non-parametric test might be more suited. o Secondly, R2 is listed along side the estimated pearson’s correlation. This could be me, but I would say reporting pearson’s r is more common. Can the authors confirm what is reported is the R2 and why? Now more importantly, the authors report on the significance of their correlation between COVID-19 incidence and population density. Although I have nothing against normalising the result by population density, I doubt relying on merely a significant p-value with such a low R2 provides the right ‘prove’ to do so (this might relate to a high sample size, but as listed in the minor comments, it is a bit unclear to me which test is fitted to which data). I think this is also confirmed by the high variance observed in the correlation between these two variables in Figure S2. Perhaps better to explain rational for normalising incidence by population density in the methods and leave out 3.1. o I find the authors conclusions more concerning for table 2, where significant p values go alongside with a wide range of R2 values. Explanation is in part covered in the discussion section pp 18, but this is for the countries where no correlation is found. I think this could be done more elaborate, among which how quality of passive surveillance could affect the findings in terms of strength of the correlation. - The authors are speaking of “the SEIR” model, but in fact, SEIR model structures can involve a multitude of assumptions and parameters encompassing these assumptions. As a result, I have some difficulty assessing the validity of the findings regarding the evaluation of the virus transmission rates. o Therefore, first of all “an SEIR model structure” would be more appropriate on pp6 line 122. o Also, a listing of the differential equations either in the methods section or the supplementary material would be useful to provide the reader transparency in what model parameters and assumptions were incorporated. E.g. what is assumed regarding the transmission rate of asymptomatic individuals? Non infectious at all? What fraction of the population is assumed to remain asymptomatic? o Also, it is good practice to list the parameters values used as well as their source. Therefore, I would argue for a table in the supplementary material. o Moreover, the interaction frequency needs explaining. A more commonly used term I think is “contact rate”. The authors refer to beta as their contact rate, but this would more commonly be coined “the effective contact rate” (which can be denoted as a product of contact rate and probability of infection upon contact). - More importantly, heterogeneity in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been outspoken (e.g. https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-67/v3, https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.09.20171132 ), which has among others been associated to heterogeneities in age-specific contact patterns. Therefore, estimating an R0 based on an average contact rate, probability of transmission as well as infection period is not a very accurate representation of SARS-CoV-2 dynamics. Importantly, quantifying differences between country-level altitude, by “playing around” with the transmission rate does not come across methodologically sound and could, at minimum, do with a formal fitting procedure. - Moreover, in my opinion the differences between transmission rates in the high and lowlands are hardly convincing. A deterministic model is used, and confidence intervals are missing, but my suspicion is that these would highly overlap. - What I am also not certain about (but I might have missed it), do the authors vary the “frequency of interaction rate” between high and lowlands? As the SEIR model is ‘fitted’ to raw incidence, one would expect different frequency of interaction rates in higher than in lower densely populated areas. In a dynamic transmission model where beta, the effective contact rate, is a product of the frequency of interaction and the probability of infection upon contact, the ‘fitted’ value for the latter will be correlated to the value used for the former. This needs clarification. - In conclusion, I feel rather uncomfortable by the SEIR model used and validity of the findings reported on the transmission rates and R0 estimates between highlands vs lowlands. I doubt these findings should be part of the manuscript. - Estimate for severity is based on the recovered to case ratio and recovery rates. For clarification, what do the deaths represent in the death to case ratio? The national reported covid deaths? Excess mortality? As I am not entirely sure why there should be such a gap between 1- fraction of of recovered patients (recovered/total cases) and death to case ratio (deaths/total cases). - Regardless, both are very likely sensitive to underreporting (i.e. the higher underreporting, the higher the death-to-case ratio). This is the reason why the authors evaluate the underreporting of cases in high and lowlands. The authors conclude that the non-significant differences observed in death-to-case ratio between high and lowlands could be explained by differences in in undiagnosed cases (76% for highlands vs 73% for lowlands). Estimating confidence intervals based on mean and SD will, I think, show that these estimates overlap, i.e. revealing that this might not necessarily explain the non-observed difference. Even if there was a true difference in underreporting between high and lowlands, why would one expect a difference in underreporting based on altitude? Please clarify and what could be an alternative explanation. In particular why there is a difference in %recovered but not in death to case ratio (but as stated, I don’t fully understand the difference). - Also methods pp 7 lines 149 – 151: COVID severity: These seem to be based on national estimates (npairs = 5). This while the estimates for the correlation between cases and altitude and case numbers are based on a mixture of national, regional and local level data (see minor comments). Why the difference? To what extend does it make sense to use national level data here, why not, similar to the analyses correlating altitude with incidence, on a more granular level? - Discussion pp 19: This seems to elaborate quite far on what is covered in the manuscript. Virus transmission capacity under different altitudes I think is what the authors want to elude to, but it now comes across somewhat as a self-citation exercise and covering a topic the authors is probably familiar with. Suggest to cut and/or shorten. Minor Comments - Some clarifications/editing in the methods would be useful, i.e.: o Methods pp 5 line 105: what do the n=51 represent? Is this a mixture of observations on city or province or state or country or departmental level? o Similar for pp 6 lines 109-110, what do the n’s represent here? It seems country-level datapoints, but as the block variable concerns ‘country’ there must be multiple observations from within the countries included. Moreover, these are estimates all across the whole world, not only the American continent? And what about the n’s listed in line 111-115 for those countries in the American continent? Please clarify. o For the non-statistical reader, it would be good to refer to “the block variable” in a more intuitive way. o pp 6 line 107-115, terms like “the analysed variable” are not conventional terms to use, rather something along the lines of “dependent variable”. o “organised by intervals of 100m of altitude”. ‘Categorised’ or ‘grouped by’ might be preferred. o Pp 6 line 122: The SEIR should be An SEIR. There is not just one SEIR model. o Overall, the methods section could do with a revision from a statistician/epidemiologist. - There are certain sections in the result section, that are better suited in the discussion, as these provide interpretation of the results in the context of existing evidence, i.e.: o Results pp 10 line 196 – 197. This should be moved to the discussion. o Results pp 12 lines 258-261: This should be moved to discussion. - Also, no need to repeat again that cases were normalised by population density. The same holds for pp 10 lines 203-204. The methods clearly describe what scale was assumed for the correlations, no need to list this again. - Methods pp 10 line 207: I think a word is missing in this sentence, but also I don’t fully understand what is meant. I think that beyond 1000 masl, a correlation between altitude and COVID-19 incidence is apparent (and not below) but this is not what it reads. - I also don’t understand what the authors have done when they state “repeated correlation analyses performed at altitudes above 800, 1000 etc.” - Methods pp 11 lines 219 – 221: Move to methods. - Figure 1B legend: add “above 1000m”? - Fig 2: It might be the resolution, but I fail to see the blue circles. Should these be ‘red circles’? - Typos - Introduction pp4 line 76: Appears to have referencing non-consistent with the remainder of the article - Introduction: It’s not very common to include tables in the introduction. Is this table really needed? Or can it be moved to Supplementary material? - Methods pp 8 lines 160-165: Sentence is not correct. - Methods pp 8 line 167: Ref 28 (worldometer) the correct reference? - ********** 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 #3: Yes: Esther Van Kleef [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.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. |
Revision 2 |
Decreased incidence, virus transmission capacity, and severity of COVID-19 at altitude on the American continent PONE-D-20-23585R2 Dear Dr. Soliz, 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 for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. 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, Kristien Verdonck Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Reviewers' comments: |
Formally Accepted |
PONE-D-20-23585R2 Decreased incidence, virus transmission capacity, and severity of COVID-19 at altitude on the American continent Dear Dr. Soliz: I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. 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. If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Kristien Verdonck Academic Editor PLOS ONE |
Open letter on the publication of peer review reports
PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.
We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.
Learn more at ASAPbio .