It has come to our attention that the Academic Editor who handled this manuscript, Dr Raul Luque, had collaborated and co-authored publications with the authors of the article in the five years that preceded the submission of the manuscript.
In line with the PLOS ONE competing interests policy (http://www.plosone.org/st...), we consider this as a potential conflict of interest. Dr Luque was invited by PLOS ONE to act as Academic Editor for this manuscript and we acknowledge that the journal should not have approached him to handle this manuscript.
We have therefore asked an independent Academic Editor, Dr Zane Andrews, to carefully evaluate the peer review process of this article. Dr Andrews has confirmed that he is satisfied that the decision for publication was adequate.
