PONE-D-21-12763

Analysis on Outsourcing Service Behavior of Rice Pest and Disease Control Based on Heckman Selection Model

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. LinPing Wang,

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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: Partly

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: 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

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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: The paper deals with a basically peripherical issue in general, which, however, seems to be important in its field, indeed. However, the topic is relatively narrow; 1) having a potential interest for it from the readers' side, 2) can contribute to the existing knowledge to its field.

Basically, in this paper, the appropriate methodology is used to investigate the research questions. This methodology supports the results, and the conclusions are based on the results.

However, I have problems with the structure, which is quite unclear and partially with the contents.

- The introduction is not comprehensive; the research questions are not set appropriately, and the context is not explained.

- Chapters 2, 3, and 4 should be one chapter called "Material and Methods." However, in this case, the analysis part is too short.

I recommend writing more in the analysis chapter - inputs the authors have enough based in their research.

- I could not find any literature review in the paper; some resources are cited in the introduction and methodology chapters; however, the actual literature review is missing. Therefore, I recommend writing an analytical, critical, and comprehensive literature review chapter.

- there are no limitations of the research indicated.

Reviewer #2: The Manuscript "Analysis on Outsourcing Service Behavior of Rice Pest and Disease Control Based on

Heckman Selection Model" addresses an interesting, important topic along developing field crop (rice) production, specifically plant protection in an exciting socio-economic and "farmers behavior" context in Fujian Province, China.

The data collection in selected regions, counties and the number of farmers is appropriate for processing and coming to conclusions. The pest control/management and the potential outsourcing is very well introduced, discussed in the Manuscript. The conclusions are well phrased and imprortant for policy development purposes as well.

Three remarks:

- the category "pest" usually covers all harmfull organisms, incl. vuruses, fungi, animals, etc. Thus pests and diseases in the text may be corrected for arthropod pests and diseases.

- in addition to outsourcing of "pest control" service, a broader outsourcing of "pest management" is more appropriate approach.

- the Authors may add some sentence to the discussion/conclusion on how the outsourcing service may contribute to broader IPM implementation, sustainable production, farming development.

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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

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Analysis on Outsourcing Service Behavior of Rice Pest and Disease Control Based on Heckman Selection Model-- A Case Study of Ten Counties in Fujian Province

PONE-D-21-12763R1

Dear Dr. LinPing Wang,

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,

László Vasa, 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

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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

**********

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

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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

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: The authors accepted my comments and made the necessary improvements. Based on this latest version, I can accept it for publication.

Reviewer #2: The manuscripzt went through important changes, modifications that make it more clear, explicit and meaningful.

One remark where Reviewer raises reservation is the use of "pest control" instead of "pest management".

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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