PGPH-D-21-01173

Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar

PLOS Global Public Health

Dear Dr. Burger,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS Global Public Health. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS Global Public Health’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please note that the second reviewer has shared a marked PDF with comments left at various parts of the manuscript embedded within the PDF. 

Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 15 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at globalpubhealth@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pgph/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas, MBBS, MPH, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS Global Public Health

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does this manuscript meet PLOS Global Public Health’s publication criteria? Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe methodologically and ethically rigorous research with conclusions that are appropriately drawn based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Dear Authors,

Thank you for taking the time to do this elaborate study - on an important topic. I commend you on taking up a very elegant study design.

My concerns are primarily with the organization of the paper and the readability of it.

I encourage you to organize the material better-

a) The introduction is too elaborate- can you cut it down and emphasize why specifically you did this study?

b) With the elegant study design - I got lost in the language and the places where the methods and results merged. I would suggest a section called "Instrumentation" - that crisply describes the process and the specific survey tools developed.

- Please refrain from adding results to this.

c) The results section is confusing partly because of too many tables/figures. Could you simplify these? It would enhance the readability significantly.

d) Please do not bring in discussion elements into the results section.

e) The discussion section has a lot of richness. I wish it were more succinct. I felt like I was reading an elaborate results section rather than a discussion section.

Again, there is a lot of richness in this manuscript. This is a field I am very familiar with. However, it is a very difficult one to read. I would strongly recommend simplifying the writing to reach your readers.

Reviewer #2: Hi, Please find attached the manuscript with my comments as ‘sticky notes’ in the attached document.

My over all comment: publishable only after these comments are addressed. Also, need to simplify the way the graphs are explained in results. And not attribute causation.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Somesh Kumar

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Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar

PGPH-D-21-01173R1

Dear Burger,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript 'Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar' has been provisionally accepted for publication in PLOS Global Public Health.

Before your manuscript can be formally accepted you will need to complete some formatting changes, which you will receive in a follow up email. A member of our team will be in touch with a set of requests.

Please note that your manuscript will not be scheduled for publication until you have made the required changes, so a swift response is appreciated.

IMPORTANT: The editorial review process is now complete. PLOS will only permit corrections to spelling, formatting or significant scientific errors from this point onwards. Requests for major changes, or any which affect the scientific understanding of your work, will cause delays to the publication date of your manuscript.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact globalpubhealth@plos.org.

Thank you again for supporting Open Access publishing; we are looking forward to publishing your work in PLOS Global Public Health.

Best regards,

Julia Robinson

Executive Editor

PLOS Global Public Health

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Reviewer Comments (if any, and for reference):