Evaluation of Hansen et al.: Nuance Is Crucial in Comparisons of Noise

Abstract

This is a first-round review of “Cytoplasmic Amplification of Transcriptional Noise Generates Substantial Cell-to-Cell Variability” by Leor Weinberger, Maike Hansen, and their colleagues; it was written for Cell Systems as part of the peer review process. We chose to feature it here because its nuanced treatment of noise, Hansen et al. (2018, this issue of Cell Systems), and Battich et al. (2015) exemplifies scholarship. The constructive critique it presents also improved Hansen et al. (2018) without imposing an agenda on its authors. After the first round of review,Hansen et al. (2018)was revised to take the reviewers’ comments into account, re-submitted, re-reviewed, accepted for publication, and then published in this issue of Cell Systems. For comparison, an earlier version of Hansen et al. was deposited on bioRxiv ahead of review and can be found here:https://doi.org/10.1101/222901. Olsman et al. chose to reveal their identities during the peer review process within this peer review. Hansen et al. support the publication of this Peer Review; their permission to use it was obtained after their paper was officially accepted. This Peer Review was not itself peer reviewed. It has been lightly edited for stylistic polish and clarity. No scientific content has been substantively altered.