Peer Review History
Original SubmissionNovember 3, 2020 |
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PONE-D-20-34654 College from home during COVID-19: A mixed methods study of heterogeneous experiences PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Morris, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’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. I would particularly suggest you consider the comments provided by Reviewer 2 regarding Time 2 comparison and interview protocols and data analysis. Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 20 2021 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 plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:
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Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice. When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 2.Thank you for stating the following in the Financial Disclosure section: "This project was funded by National Science Foundation grants EDA-2009977 awarded to JM, PN, AD, and ER, CHS-2016365, and CHS-1941537, awarded to JM. Funding was also provided through a research gift from Google awarded to JM and a grant from Samsung awarded to JM, PN, AD, and ER. KSK (the second author) was supported by a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH117827)." We note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company: Google We note that you received funding from a commercial source: Samsung a) Please provide an amended Funding Statement declaring this commercial affiliation, as well as a statement regarding the Role of Funders in your study. If the funding organization did not play a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript and only provided financial support in the form of authors' salaries and/or research materials, please review your statements relating to the author contributions, and ensure you have specifically and accurately indicated the role(s) that these authors had in your study. You can update author roles in the Author Contributions section of the online submission form. 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If this adherence statement is not accurate and there are restrictions on sharing of data and/or materials, please state these. Please note that we cannot proceed with consideration of your article until this information has been declared. Please include both an updated Funding Statement and Competing Interests Statement in your cover letter. We will change the online submission form on your behalf. Please know it is PLOS ONE policy for corresponding authors to declare, on behalf of all authors, all potential competing interests for the purposes of transparency. PLOS defines a competing interest as anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of research or non-research articles submitted to one of the journals. Competing interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Competing interests can arise in relationship to an organization or another person. Please follow this link to our website for more details on competing interests: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competing-interests 3.We note that the grant information you provided in the ‘Funding Information’ and ‘Financial Disclosure’ sections do not match. When you resubmit, please ensure that you provide the correct grant numbers for the awards you received for your study in the ‘Funding Information’ section. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] 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: Partly ********** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: I Don't Know ********** 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 ********** 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 ********** 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: This is a very relevant study, well-designed and clearly written. I agree with the methodological decisions of the authors and I find it valuable for other researchers in the field, since the findings underline the need for interventions oriented towards problem-focused coping, and suggest opportunities for peer role modeling. Reviewer #2: The study uses an interesting methodology to sample data in snapshots collected regularly via text message, so data gathered at regular intervals across a couple of years. That the study has been under way since before the pandemic provided an opportunity to gather data on students’ experiences. There is obviously a very rich data set here. I have a concern about Time2 (March 2020) as the key point for comparison. This was very early in the pandemic, particularly in the US, where lockdowns and other measures were only just beginning. A justification for this early view would be helpful as motivation for this study. The earliest comparisons suggest that some students were less-stressed in March 2020 compared to the earlier comparison points. Could this be a novelty effect? Was this somehow accounted for? Does the claim about low-stress hold up given the earliness of the data gathering? The links to coping strategies are important for us as educators to consider how to best support students through difficult circumstances. I note that, for international readers of this paper, ‘spring’ and ‘autumn’ reference Northern Hemisphere seasons and this confusion could be obviated by using months instead of seasonal references. It would also be helpful to include a statement about how the local area and university were impacted and by what timeline as the pandemic grew and public health measures came into force. What were these? How did your university respond? This local context is important for considering the results and implications of this study. Further, do students take year-long courses at your university? Or all of them semester-long? Or a combination? If year-long, students may have had time to develop relationships, but if semester-long, the absence of personal interactions may be more acutely felt. This study is embedded in a larger one, which gives a good grounding for asking the questions in this study. The analyses provide reasonable means to answering them. The statistical tools offer fine-grained and intensive data about the effects on and experiences for undergraduate students through the pandemic. The statistical analysis in the earlier section is detailed and reasonable, and the two sets of framing offer reasonable grounds to interpret the stats through the interviews. I think limitations for aggregating big data needs to be acknowledged. There were also differences between Likert Scale ratings, and thus these would be interpreted differently. Similarly, self-report data is often called into question. How were these issues dealt with when the results were interrogated? A growing literature base demonstrates and details challenges undergraduates faced during 2020/covid. Some of these are local-level challenges faced by students and the value of this study is the fine-grained detail that highlights and shows comparisons with earlier years. The study reports themes/challenges that may be common with what other research has reported, but the depth present here adds to this literature with its fine-grained detail. I’d like to know more about why authors chose to organize themes from interviews as challenges and strategies, even as this is presumably a choice about how to present results. There will be further interesting responses to the implications of the pandemic at the university level, particularly as many universities are pushing toward more online work while reorganizing/restructuring in response to financial strains. There are important messages in the interview analysis, especially around social interactions that are afforded by on campus/in person activity that is necessarily associated with being a college student. This sort of engagement is perhaps underappreciated by those who advocate online learning for efficiency, cost etc, which is another key important result of the reported research—to draw attention to this aspect of college/university life and the social/protective factors entailed. Where is the interview protocol? p. 38, line 847 says there was training offered in CBT. The study didn’t talk about training. The final discussion points do not really follow from the paper and what was presented. There are very few minor production errors, misplaced apostrophes, etc ********** 6. 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: Yes: Dimitrios Vlachopoulos Reviewer #2: No [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. 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Revision 1 |
College from home during COVID-19: A mixed methods study of heterogeneous experiences PONE-D-20-34654R1 Dear Dr. Morris, 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. An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. 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 onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Amanda A. Webster 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 Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed ********** 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 Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: 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 Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 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 Reviewer #2: 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: Thank you very much for the detailed response and the corrections. All issues have been addressed and the structure is clearer now. I recommend this paper for publication. Reviewer #2: I appreciate that the authors have thoroughly addressed questions and comments from the earlier review. I noted a couple of typos: Lines 268, 280, p. 12: words missing before naming tables (S5 table, S6-S8 tables) ********** 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: Yes: Dimitrios Vlachopoulos Reviewer #2: No |
Formally Accepted |
PONE-D-20-34654R1 College from home during COVID-19: A mixed-methods study of heterogeneous experiences Dear Dr. Morris: I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Amanda A. Webster Academic Editor PLOS ONE |
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