Ciprofloxacin versus Aminoglycoside-Ciprofloxacin for Bubonic Plague.

7 major claims checked against the paper's own evidence: all adequately supported.

Recomputed 1 test: 1 consistent, 0 inconsistent, 1 via agent-written checks.

9 copyedit issues flagged: mostly consistency, clarity, typo.

Checked 22 references: 13 verified — 5 unresolved, 4 not checked.

1 data/code link checked; 0 live.

Ready after minor edits. The manuscript is methodologically sound and well-reported, but must add a data availability statement (critical), an explicit regulatory compliance statement, manufacturer/lot details for study drugs, and the statistical software version before submission. Four copyedit issues (orphaned parentheses, extra closing parenthesis, currency notation consistency, clarifying table footnote) should also be corrected. Five references not found in a registry need verification to rule out fabrication.

1. 1.
   HIGHdata code

   Add a data availability statement specifying a concrete access route (e.g., via the corresponding author on reasonable request, or through a managed-access repository like Vivli) in the Methods or a dedicated Data Sharing section.
2. 2.
   HIGHother

   Add an explicit statement of regulatory compliance (e.g., 'This trial was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and ICH-GCP guidelines') to the Ethics section.

   A named ethics committee and consent are not sufficient; an explicit compliance statement is the expected standard and is currently absent.
3. 3.
   HIGHrigor

   Report manufacturers and lot numbers for ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, and gentamicin in the Interventions section.

   Drug source information is essential for reproducibility; its omission was flagged by all three reviewers.
4. 4.
   HIGHstatistics

   Identify the statistical software (e.g., 'R version 4.2.0', 'Stata 17', 'SAS 9.4') with version number in the Statistical methods section.

   Software identification is a standard reporting requirement and was noted as absent by all reviewers.
5. 5.
   HIGHreporting

   Verify the 5 references not found in Crossref/OpenAlex (Bombay Plague Committee report, WHO manual, Plague around the world 2019, Plague Bioterrorism Response Toolkit, Products Approved for Other Bioterrorism Emergencies) by confirming their existence and correcting or replacing any unverifiable citations.

   Unresolved references in a registry are a potential fabrication signal; each must be confirmed as real and correctly cited.
6. 6.
   HIGHrigor

   Add a statement explicitly referencing adherence to the CONSORT 2010 reporting guideline (e.g., 'This trial is reported in accordance with the CONSORT 2010 statement') in the Methods section.

   CONSORT is the standard for RCT reporting; its absence was noted by multiple reviewers as a minor gap.
7. 7.
   MEDIUMreporting

   Report exact p-values for key non-inferiority and superiority tests, or provide a brief justification for their absence (e.g., 'p-values are not reported because the primary inference is based on confidence intervals').

   While acceptable for non-inferiority trials, some journals and readers expect p-values; adding them or a justification improves transparency.
8. 8.
   MEDIUMother

   If available, add race/ethnicity data and a list of baseline comorbidities to Table 1.

   More complete demographic reporting improves generalizability assessment, though the current presentation is minimally adequate.
9. 9.
   MEDIUMcopyedit

   Fix orphaned parentheses after 'infections' in Results, paragraph 1 (remove the empty '()').

   This appears to be a formatting artifact from referencing Figure 1; it looks unprofessional in the submitted version.
10. 10.
    MEDIUMcopyedit

    Remove the extra closing parenthesis after 'dated 10/09/2018' in the Methods, paragraph 1 (the current text reads '...dated 10/09/2018))...').

    This is a clear typographical error that copyeditors will catch.
11. 11.
    MEDIUMcopyedit

    Use consistent currency notation (either 'US$' or 'USD') throughout, and add a space before the currency symbol (e.g., '14 US$' → '$14' or '14 USD').

    Currently '14 US$' appears in Discussion; standardizing improves readability.
12. 12.
    MEDIUMcopyedit

    In Table 2, add a footnote explaining why the PPI sample size (111, 110) differs from ITTI (111, 111).

    The difference is explained in the text but merits a table footnote for clarity.
13. 13.
    LOWother

    Rework the long sentence describing major protocol deviations in Results, paragraph 1 into a bulleted list or shorter sentences for readability.

    The current sentence is grammatically complex and difficult to parse.
14. 14.
    LOWother

    Rephrase 'excluding pregnancy' to 'excluding pregnant individuals' in the Abstract, Methods for clarity.

    Minor wording improvement to avoid ambiguity.
15. 15.
    LOWother

    Rephrase the sentence about the secondary endpoint in Discussion, paragraph 3 to improve clarity (e.g., 'A secondary endpoint that included <25% reduction in bubo size as a failure criterion showed inferiority of the intervention, but this composite measure is not considered clinically meaningful or objective.').

    The original sentence is convoluted and could be clarified.
16. 16.
    LOWreporting

    Consider adding the non-inferiority margin (15%) to the Abstract, Results for context.

    The margin is defined in Methods but not restated in the abstract, which reduces the standalone clarity of the abstract.