PONE-D-20-05427

Better coverage, better outcomes? Mapping mobile network data to official statistics using satellite imagery and radio propagation modelling

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Koebe,

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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: Review of P-one-D-20-0542

This study provides a detailed methodological approach to small-area-estimation of poverty based on data derived from mobile phones. Specifically, it addresses methodological advances in correcting how well the data derived from phones are able to assist in predictions of poverty rates. The study is well described and an important contribution to the field. I have several comments I hope can improve the general readability and accessibility of the manuscript, and one request for re-analysis that would improve applicability of the results.

As a general comment, I believe the authors have understated one of the main advances the paper offers, which is to allow for the idea that the statistical units at which poverty is measured may be best represented by more than one tower location. This idea should be better expressed in the introduction.

Both settlement weighting to derive augmented Voronoi polygons and radio-propogation-based modelling aim to address a core problem with how population density interacts with tower densities. While the results in the present study do not show significant improvements in predictive power,

I feel that it could be valuable to further explore the relative contribution of settlement weighting and radio-propagation modelling in the context of population density and tower distribution. For example, in the simulation studies, the predictive power of the model was higher in urban versus Rural areas. It would be of interest to see how this difference played out in Senegal.

In the conclusions, the author suggests that model misspecification could be the reason for a lack of significant model improvement using propogation models. A further potential interpretation – and possible contribtion of the study is that it hints at a lower limit to the scale at which spatial heterogeneity in poverty rates can be discerned using CDR data, at least in the context of poverty data aggregated within statistical units.

Please be consistent with capitalisation of ‘Voronoi’

Line 196: Please define HATA the first time you use it in text. Or does HATA refer to the author in citation 53?

Line 332: Please define BSA as Best server area here.

Line 350: please define IDW here as inverse distance weights

Results

Line 596: I don’t see any differentiation between urban and rural predictions in the Senagal case. Can these be provided for interest?

Figure 2: please be consistent in your labelling of the different scenarios so that 2e and 2f are labelled BSA and IDW in line with other text and tables.

Reviewer #2: Please see attached

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Better coverage, better outcomes? Mapping mobile network data to official statistics using satellite imagery and radio propagation modelling

PONE-D-20-05427R1

Dear Dr. Koebe,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Jacinto Estima

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. 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: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No