PONE-D-20-37753

Confirming Validity of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Japanese with a Nationwide Large-Scale Sample.

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tachikawa,

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Thank you for the valuable contribution. One expert in the psychology field has carefully reviewed your submission and he has found merits in your work. However, several minor but necessary amendments should be well taken care of in a resubmission. I look forward to receiving your revision. 

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: I have read the paper with a great interest. The paper has written up well but needs revision.

I have reported my review as following:

Abstract: Sampling procedure is not clear in abstract. Please add study time. Like Bitan et al I would suggest to rename the factors as : Emotional fear reactions and Symptomatic expressions of fear

Introduction: I think that it will be great if the authors can provide some information regarding how Japan react to the COVID-19 (e.g., government' policies, infected cases, deaths). It would be better to justify why a scale should be translated into other languages. Please update your references on recent publication of Fear validation:

For example:

Piqueras, J. A., Gomez-Gomez, M., Marzo, J. C., Gomez-Mir, P., Falco, R., Valenzuela, B., & COVID, P. S. (2020). Validation of the Spanish version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Its association with acute stress and coping.

Elemo, Aman Sado, Seydi Ahmet Satici, and Mark D. Griffiths. "The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Psychometric Properties of the Ethiopian Amharic Version." International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction (2020): 1-12.

Method: sampling procedure, study time are still vague here. Did you used any exclusion criteria? Please provide a justification/ rationale for the sample size. Please also provide the attrition rate. How did you handle with missing data? The method of estimation for the CFA is not clear. Which software did you use for conducting CFA?

Results: please adjust your P-values for multiple comparisons

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Amir H Pakpour

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Confirming Validity of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Japanese with a Nationwide Large-Scale Sample.

PONE-D-20-37753R1

Dear Dr. Tachikawa,

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.

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Kind regards,

Chung-Ying Lin

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: