PONE-D-21-09874

Introduction to DUIA: the Database on Urban Inequality and Amenities

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ramos,

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.

As highlighted in the Reviewers' Reports, Reviewers 1 and 2 suggest minor changes whereas Reviewer 3 pointed to major issues to be revised. According to Reviewer 3 Report, among others, additional references are required in the introduction section and more explanations on the database would improve the manuscript. Other minor issues are detailed in the Reviewers' Reports.

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Eda Ustaoglu, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: I Don't Know

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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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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

Reviewer #3: 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: A very commendable initiative.

Please address the following minor corrections.

Lines48/49: "and not fully harmonised" should read "and are not fully ..."

Line 204-205 : Please rewrite.

Line 299: "consists in" should read "consists of".

Line 398: "is shows" should read "shows".

Reviewer #2: This work is a clear presentation of what is on the ground.

My point in question 2 above is that the database can be used to show how inequality will be in time to come for the selected cities.

Therefore the analysis can be extended to include projections for the selected cities.

Reviewer #3: This article introduces a new database called the Database on Urban Inequality and Amenities (DUIA), which includes data on the socio-economic development and amenities of 86 cities. DUIA is particularly useful because it provides information on other cities outside of the West and offers opportunities to study asset inequalities. Overall, the paper addresses an important gap in the literature, and the illustrations the authors used were useful. The paper should be considered for publication if the authors address the comments below.

1. In the introduction, the authors raised some important limitations of existing databases (lines 46-58). However, they failed to reference any specific databases or include any citations to support these claims. While some examples are discussed in later sections of the paper, a summary in the introduction will be useful to readers. I recommend that the authors should refer to specific databases as examples in discussing these limitations.

2. Where is the database? The authors described how they extracted and integrated data from the two sources they included in deriving the database. However, they failed to describe the outcome of that process. A section that clearly explains the features of the database will be helpful. This section should be presented before the illustrations.

3. Similar to my comment above, the authors should discuss the application of the database in-depth. The two illustrations are good but are there other applications that you anticipate? I recommend that somewhere, either in the conclusion or limitations, the authors should clearly discuss the nature of uses they anticipate for their database.

4. The authors should check for word omissions and punctuation issues. A few of them are listed below

Line 38-39: there is an “of” missing in … proliferation databases. Also, there is an extra “to” after to go.

Line 64-65: a “to” is missing

Line 74-75: delete study

Punctuations: e.g., lines 169, 166

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: DUIA General and Review Comment.docx

An introduction to DUIA: the Database on Urban Inequality and Amenities

PONE-D-21-09874R1

Dear Dr. Ramos,

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,

Eda Ustaoglu, PhD

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

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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: The authors should be congratulated for a very useful initiative. I have no further comments to make.

Reviewer #2: The comments and suggestions have been added to the work. It has useful illustrations and a well summarized abstract.

In general, it should be considered for publication.

Reviewer #3: (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

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No