Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJune 4, 2021
Decision Letter - Rafiq Islam, Editor

PONE-D-21-18510

Influence of Agriculture on Child Nutrition through Child Feeding Practices in India: A District-Level Analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Pradhan,

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.

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 While the manuscript has contained good information, the needs a better organization, editing and data analysis and interpretation for addressing food availability and quality related to children health. 

The authors asked to address the comments of the reviewer(s) accordingly and thoroughly in a question and answer session. Also, address abbreviations and acronyms and in the abstract with data presentation in the table and figures with significant digits. There were 15 graphs which could be combined at 4 in 1. Important regression analyses can be shown in figures for better depiction of the results and interpretation.      

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Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 09 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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Rafiq Islam, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

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 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2.Please address the following:

- Please refrain from stating p values as 0.000 and instead use the format p<0.0001. 

- Please ensure you do not have any statements of causation within your Conclusions, as these cannot be confirmed following a study of this type

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

While the manuscript has contained good information, the needs a better organization, editing and data analysis and interpretation for addressing food availability and quality related to children health. Also, address abbreviations and acronyms and in the abstract with data presentation in the table and figures with significant digits. There were 15 graphs which could be combined at 4 in 1. Important regression analyses can be shown in figures for better depiction of the results and interpretation.

[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

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

Reviewer #1: 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

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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

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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: In this current research work, the authors have nicely presented influence of agriculture on child nutrition in India. However, there can be some improvements in the current manuscript. They are as follows-

1. Authors must add a conceptual or theoretical graphical framework in the introduction part of the present paper.

2. Materials and method section can be modified by defining the study districts, state, and the country more prominently under the study area section.

3. In analysis part, for deeper understanding and to find out stronger predictor variables the authors can go for stepwise regression, path, and principal component analysis (PCA). Additionally, authors must go for data visualization after the analyses.

4. In this present study, the total calorie consumed by the child per day in the study districts of India, can be added as an important independent variable.

5. BMI of both the mother and child can also be considered as one important dependent variable.

6. Some more references must be added in this current study.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Riti Chatterjee

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Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: PONE-D-21-18510 Review.docx
Revision 1

Influence of Agriculture on Child Nutrition through Child Feeding Practices in India: A District-Level Analysis (PONE-D-21-18510)

(Research Article)

Manas Ranjan Pradhan (Corresponding Author)

International Institute for Population Sciences, India

Journal Requirements:

Comment 1: Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming.

Response 1: We have checked the PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming.

Comment 2. Please address the following:

- Please refrain from stating p values as 0.000 and instead use the format p<0.0001.

- Please ensure you do not have any statements of causation within your Conclusions, as these cannot be confirmed following a study of this type

Response 2: We have revised the manuscript as suggested

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Comment: While the manuscript has contained good information, the needs a better organization, editing and data analysis and interpretation for addressing food availability and quality related to children health. Also, address abbreviations and acronyms and in the abstract with data presentation in the table and figures with significant digits. There were 15 graphs which could be combined at 4 in 1. Important regression analyses can be shown in figures for better depiction of the results and interpretation.

Response: We have revised the paper in view of the comments. Specifically, addressed abbreviations and acronyms in the abstract, data presentation in the tables with significant digits, combined the graphs and presented the important regression results in figure.

Reviewer Comments

In this current research work, the authors have nicely presented influence of agriculture on child nutrition in India. However, there can be some improvements in the current manuscript. They are as follows-

Response: Thank you for reviewing our article and for the critical comments to improve the quality of the article. We have revised the article in view of the comments.

Comment 1: Authors must add a conceptual or theoretical graphical framework in the introduction part of the present paper.

Response 1: We have added a conceptual framework as per the suggestion.

Comment 2: Materials and method section can be modified by defining the study districts, state, and the country more prominently under the study area section.

Response 2: We have revised the materials and method section as suggested. Specifically, we have added a section on study area.

Comment 3: In analysis part, for deeper understanding and to find out stronger predictor variables the authors can go for stepwise regression, path, and principal component analysis (PCA). Additionally, authors must go for data visualization after the analyses.

Response 3: The authors have done data visualization as suggested. Specifically, the OLS regression result for Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) is presented through a forest plot. We restricted ourselves from making more such figures to limit the number of figures. The stepwise regression, path and PCA are alternative ways to look into the data though they do have disadvantages as well. We think OLS analysis is equally appropriate, given the objectives of the study and the nature of the data considered for this analysis.

Comment 4: In this present study, the total calorie consumed by the child per day in the study districts of India, can be added as an important independent variable.

Response 4: Thank you for the suggestion. However, the survey data considered for this analysis does not have this information. Nevertheless, we believe that MAD which is a composite indicator composed of MMF and MDD, indicate household calorie availability as well as consumption and hence can be considered as a proxy for calorie intake.

Comment 5: BMI of both the mother and child can also be considered as one important dependent variable.

Response 5: In this paper the authors aim is to assess the influence of agriculture on child undernutrition measured through stunting, wasting and underweight. To make the analysis focused, the authors did not include other associated outcome variables. Moreover, we have used the BMI of the mother as predictor variable in the analysis.

Comment 6: Some more references must be added in this current study.

Response 6: We have added additional references in the revised manuscript

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: R1_Response to reviewer_070921.docx
Decision Letter - Rafiq Islam, Editor

Influence of Agriculture on Child Nutrition through Child Feeding Practices in India: A District-Level Analysis

PONE-D-21-18510R1

Dear Dr. Pradhan,

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,

Rafiq Islam, Ph.D.

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

**********

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: In this current research work, the authors have nicely presented influence of agriculture on child nutrition in India.

After the first revision the authors nicely modified the points suggested by the reviewer. Now can be accepted.

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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: Yes: Riti Chatterjee

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Rafiq Islam, Editor

PONE-D-21-18510R1

Influence of Agriculture on Child Nutrition through Child Feeding Practices in India: A District-Level Analysis

Dear Dr. Pradhan:

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. Rafiq Islam

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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