Round 17: response to reviewers
Protocol version reviewed: 0.17.0. Revised version: 0.18.0.
Verdicts: GPT-6 Astra MINOR REVISION; Fable 5.1 ACCEPT; Grok 4.7 ACCEPT. Grok 4.7 raised no new comments. Every comment is answered below and recorded in ../comments.csv.
Correction to the round 16 response
The response to F16-2 recorded "your text adopted", but the adopted rule simplified the proposal: Kaplan-Meier arms also take their scenario risk from their own likelihood under PR02 alone. It was a partial adoption (F17-0).
Summary of main changes
- Kaplan-Meier reference inputs: finite standard error from transformed limits at the reported confidence level, or the Greenwood variance.
- One arm restatement limited to the hazard routes; reference risk named for one usable arm; arm level known status; summed finer intervals for person time.
- Relative only rule named at its definition; pointer to matters deferred to amendment.
GPT-6 Astra (gpt-6-astra)
C17-1 (minor; Absolute effects). Transformed confidence limits can be infinite, and 1.96 assumes 95 percent coverage.
Response (revised). Agreed; a Kaplan-Meier value needs 0 < F < 1 and a finite positive standard error on g(F) = log{-log(1 - F)}: from a two sided interval (L, U) of known level with 0 < L < U < 1, {g(U) - g(L)}/(2 z_{1 - alpha/2}), otherwise from the Greenwood variance; when no Kaplan-Meier value qualifies, the Poisson and then binomial inputs apply. fable-5.1 (F17-6b) raised the coverage point too.
C17-2 (minor; Absolute effects). The one arm restatement extended log hazard sampling to a reported Aalen-Johansen value used directly.
Response (revised). Agreed; the restatement is limited to the piecewise integration and exponential approximation routes, and the text says it does not apply to a reported Aalen-Johansen cumulative incidence used directly as F_ref.
Fable 5.1 (fable-5.1)
F17-0 (note; Response record). The round 16 response to F16-2 said "your text adopted" although the Kaplan-Meier branch was simplified.
Response (corrected). Agreed; the record should have said partly adopted: every usable arm, including a Kaplan-Meier arm, takes its scenario risk from its own likelihood under PR02 alone, which you judged harmless.
F17-1 (minor; Absolute effects). Poisson input "over one period" excluded summed finer intervals.
Response (revised). Agreed; "over one period, or summed over reported finer intervals".
F17-2 (minor; Absolute effects; priors). Reference risk with one usable arm unnamed; PR02 scope.
Response (revised). Agreed; with one usable arm the reference risk is the posterior median of 1 - exp(-exp(theta_a)), and PR02 applies_to names the single arm and scenario uses.
F17-3 (minor; Absolute effects). Known status for f_a read trial wide.
Response (revised). Agreed; status known for every participant randomized to that arm.
F17-4 (minor; Absolute effects). Scenario inputs for fixed time outcomes unstated.
Response (deferred to amendment). Deferred to the pre-analysis amendment, as you allowed; the matter predates 0.17.0 and adding a new rule now would extend the revision beyond the comments of this round.
F17-5 (minor; Absolute effects). Scenario values on zero count arms are prior dependent.
Response (deferred to amendment). Deferred to the pre-analysis amendment with F17-4 (labeling and display under the sensitivity prior of PR02).
F17-6 (minor; Editorial). Name the relative only rule at its definition; level of the confidence interval; pointer to deferred matters.
Response (revised). Agreed; the defining passage now names the relative only rule, the confidence level is general (C17-1), and the Amendments paragraph points to the comments marked deferred to amendment.
Grok 4.7 (grok-4.7)
No new comments; verdict ACCEPT.