Review for 10.1186/s12876-016-0437-0 (2016)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Does the Intestinal Microbial Community of Korean Crohn's Disease Patients Differ from 
That of Western Patients?  
 
 
Version: 0 Date: 06 Dec 2015  
 
 
Reviewer: Giuseppe Chiarioni  
 
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
I read with interest the MS: Does the Intestinal Microbial Community of Korean Crohn's Disease 
Patients Differ from  That of Western Patients? by CS Eun and coworkers. It is an interesting 
paper dealing with microbiota features in IBD. The paper is well designed and provide 
innovative data. However, some refinement is needed to improve data presentation. My 
suggestion w ould be to temper the Authors speculation on potential influence of IFX on 
microbiota in IBD patients for the small sample size. At the end of the day, I believe no firm data 
on potential influence of any drug could be inferred from the actual study. In ad dition, more 
clinical data on the control population would be much welcomed from this side.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
Are the conclusions drawn ade quately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical  review is recommended, please specify what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
I am able to assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Needs some language corrections before being published  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five y ears received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from 
an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this  
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may i n any way gain or lose  
financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of the  
manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that 
holds  or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial com peting interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
below.  If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understand that my name will be included  
on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, my named report  
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along  with the authors'  
responses. I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons  
CC-BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understand that any comments  
which I do not wish to be included in my named report  can be included as confidential comments  
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal