Assessing equity of the spatial distribution of primary health care facilities in Fuzhou City, China: A comprehensive method

Ninglong You

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261256

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJune 22, 2021
12 Oct 2021 Decision Letter - Srinivas Goli, Editor PONE-D-21-20230Assessing equity of the spatial distribution of primary health care facilities in Fuzhou City, China: A comprehensive methodPLOS ONE Dear Dr. YOU, 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. ACADEMIC EDITOR: Considering my own reading and reviewer suggestion, I am recommending a minor revision for this manuscript. Please address the minor comments made by reviewer and submit the revision. Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 26 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. 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If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. 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 If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice. Additional Editor Comments: Considering my own reading and reviewer suggestion, I am recommending a minor revision for this manuscript. Please address the minor comments made by reviewer and submit the revision. [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 ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 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 ****** 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 ****** 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: Dear Editor, Thank you for giving me the exciting opportunity to review the present manuscript for a prestigious journal. In my opinion, the equity assessment of the spatial distribution of primary health care facilities is an interesting and important issue. A comprehensive method consisting of two frameworks is proposed. First framework is assessing resident demand based on two indices of daily demand and potential demand with a total of seven evaluation factors. Second framework is assessing primary health care facilities supply based on the road impedance with a total of three evaluation factors. I think data and methods were chosen appropriately. A valuable result is finding that the equity of the spatial distribution of PHCFs shows well overall, but there is still a lack of equity in local areas due to the mismatch between resident demand and PHCFs supply. The paper itself is well structured and the study well conducted. I agree that this study would gain a lot if the impact of the service ability of primary health care facilities on the equity assessment were taken into account. In my opinion this paper is a valuable contribution to the field. This paper might be useful for many researchers. ****** 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: 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. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261256.r001
Revision 1
6 Nov 2021 Author Response Response: We appreciate the time and efforts by the editor and reviewers in reviewing this manuscript. We have made modifications according to the comments of the editor and reviewers, and carried out the corrections one by one as suggested by the reviewers. All the changes have been highlighted in red in the revised manuscript. We hope that the revised version can meet the requirements of journal publication. Reviewers' comments: (1) The paper itself is well structured and the study well conducted. I agree that this study would gain a lot if the impact of the service ability of primary health care facilities on the equity assessment were taken into account. Response: Firstly, we appreciate your recognition of my research work and manuscript writing. Secondly, for the comment “I agree that this study would gain a lot if the impact of the service ability of primary health care facilities on the equity assessment were taken into account”, I have considered this and mentioned it as “limitations” in the last paragraph at the end of the manuscript. At this stage, the impact of the service ability of primary health care facilities on the equity assessment was not taken into account due to the lack of relevant data. We will take it as one of the important directions and optimize it in future research. Thank you very much for your constructive suggestions. Journal requirements: (1) Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. Response: Thank you very much, we have revised the styles of the manuscript body and title page according to the PLOS ONE style templates that you provided. (2) Please ensure that you include a title page within your main document. Response: Thank you very much, we have added the title page into the beginning of my manuscript. (3) We note that Figure 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in your submission contain [map/satellite] images which may be copyrighted. Response: Thank you very much, we have removed figures 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in the manuscript because it is difficult to obtain permission from the original copyright holder, and it has no great influence on the content expression of the manuscript. The changes of the corresponding part in the content expression have been highlighted in red in the revised manuscript. (4) Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. Response: Thank you very much, we have reviewed my reference list and all the changes have been highlighted in red. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261256.r002
18 Nov 2021 Decision Letter - Srinivas Goli, Editor PONE-D-21-20230R1Assessing equity of the spatial distribution of primary health care facilities in Fuzhou City, China: A comprehensive methodPLOS ONE Dear Dr. YOU, 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. ============================== ACADEMIC EDITOR: Please insert comments here and delete this placeholder text when finished. Be sure to: Indicate which changes you require for acceptance versus which changes you recommend Address any conflicts between the reviews so that it's clear which advice the authors should follow Provide specific feedback from your evaluation of the manuscript Please ensure that your decision is justified on PLOS ONE’s publication criteria and not, for example, on novelty or perceived impact. For Lab, Study and Registered Report Protocols: These article types are not expected to include results but may include pilot data. ============================== Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 02 2022 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: A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'. If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter. If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols. We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Srinivas Goli, Ph.D. Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. 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. Additional Editor Comments (if provided): Considering the reviewers suggestion, I am going with a decision of minor revision. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] 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 ******** 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: (No Response) ****** 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 [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. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261256.r003
Revision 2
21 Nov 2021 Author Response Dear Editor: We appreciate the time and efforts of the editor and reviewers in the second review process of this manuscript. We have made responses for the comments of the editor, reviewers, and journal one by one. All the changes have been highlighted in red in the revised manuscript. We hope that the revised version can fully meet the requirements of journal publication. Response to Reviewers' Comments: Comments: 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 2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? 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? Reviewer #1: Yes 5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? Reviewer #1: Yes 6. Review Comments to the Author Reviewer #1: (No Response) Response: Thank you very much for your approval of my responses to your comments of the first review, and thank you for your recognition of my research work and other aspects as well. Response to Additional Editor Comments: Comments: Considering the reviewers suggestion, I am going with a decision of minor revision. Response: Thank you very much for your review of my manuscript, I have carefully revised it and made it meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria. Response to Journal Requirements: Requirements: Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. 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. Response: Thank you very much, we have reviewed my reference list again. Three references were modified and the changes have been highlighted in red in the “Revised Manuscript with Track Changes”. They are as follows: (1) 4. Farhang L, Bhatia R, Scully CC, Corburn J, Gaydos M, Malekafzali S. Creating tools for healthy development: Case study of San Francisco’s eastern neighborhoods community health impact assessment. J Public Health Man 2008; 14(3):255-65. doi: 10.1097/01.PHH.0000316484.72759.7b. (2) 39. Liu HX, Remme RP, Hamel P, Nong HF, Ren H. Supply and demand assessment of urban recreation service and its implication for greenspace planning: A case study on Guangzhou. Landsc Urban Plan 2020; 203:103898. doi: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103898. (3) 40. Lee G, Hong I. Measuring spatial accessibility in the context of spatial disparity between demand and supply of urban park service. Landsc Urban Plan 2013; 119:85-90. doi: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.07.001. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261256.r004
26 Nov 2021 Decision Letter - Srinivas Goli, Editor Assessing equity of the spatial distribution of primary health care facilities in Fuzhou City, China: A comprehensive method PONE-D-21-20230R2 Dear Dr. YOU, 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, Srinivas Goli, Ph.D. Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Considering my own reading and reviewers suggestion, I am going with a decision of accept. Reviewers' comments: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261256.r005
Formally Accepted
15 Dec 2021 Acceptance Letter - Srinivas Goli, Editor PONE-D-21-20230R2 Assessing equity of the spatial distribution of primary health care facilities in Fuzhou City, China: A comprehensive method Dear Dr. YOU: 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. Srinivas Goli Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261256.r006

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