PONE-D-21-15276

Serum chemerin levels: a potential biomarker of joint inflammation in women with rheumatoid arthritis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Gonzalez-Lopez,

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.

Both reviewers funs some interests in this article, but also pointed out a number of criticisms that require improvement. I ask the authors to fully respond to all comments made by the reviewers in the revised version.. 

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jul 11 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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Masataka Kuwana, MD, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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?

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 #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: No

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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. Many statements in the INTRODUCTION section contains a scientific fact that need a reference. Please, add a reference after each statement that cite a finding.

2. Exclusion criteria are not sufficient! Do author exclude patients with T2DM, hypertension, CVD,…..etc.

3. Why the means and standard deviation have no decimals? Usually means and SD contain decimals. Also, p-values should contain 3 decimals.

4. In Table 1, p-values should be re-calculated as p-value =1 is not consistent with the results. Other p-values also are incorrect.

5. In Table 2, p-values also wrong and inconsistent with the r-values. I strongly suggest re-stating the results or consulting an expert in statistics because the results are wrong!

6. Please, add the negative error bars in Figure 2.

7. In Table3, Multivariate analysis usually contain Beta(SE) results in the tables. It is not necessary to add “enter method” or stepwise method. Add the decimals to the p-values.

8. Do author make a screening for selection a patients from a specific city or hospital? If yes, Figure 1 is necessary. If not, Figure 1 is not necessary.

Reviewer #2: The Manuscript ID PONE-D-21-15276 entitled "Serum chemerin levels: a potential biomarker of joint inflammation in women with rheumatoid arthritis " can be accepted for publication in PLOS ONE after major revisions.

The purpose of the manuscript is interesting and the obtained results are promising, however, it presents some limitations which needs to be implemented before publication.

The abstract should be re-checked and ameliorated, especially the sentences about the conclusions….which are not the conclusion of the manuscript

The introduction is complete and clear, but the objective of the study should be more impressive…

Concerning method section, the authors should include the description of all the considered demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients enrolled in the study…..as well as the inclusion and exclusion criteria, comorbidities, other pharmacological treatments….

In the results, please describe the flowchart in a better way.

In table 1 please add all the data analyzed.

Please develop the conclusions of the study. The Authors should consider what all of the findings taken together mean, what are the larger implications.

They also need to clarify what advance or advances in knowledge were made by this work.

Check the main text, there are some mistake in English language.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Antonella Fioravanti

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Serum chemerin levels: a potential biomarker of joint inflammation in women with rheumatoid arthritis

PONE-D-21-15276R1

Dear Dr. Gonzalez-Lopez,

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.

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Kind regards,

Masataka Kuwana, MD, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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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: Yes

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: Yes

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: All the inquiries have been addressed. I have no further concerns regarding the manuscript. Thank you.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is well written and organize. The quality of English is good. The paper appears suitable for publication in Plos One journal.

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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: Fioravanti Antonella