PONE-D-21-25675Temporal and Spatial Features of the Palace Building Space of Qinghai's Kumbum Monastery and its Evolution MechanismPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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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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: http://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,

Jun Yang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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We recommend that you contact the original copyright holder with the Content Permission Form (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=7c09/content-permission-form.pdf) and the following text:

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In the figure caption of the copyrighted figure, please include the following text: “Reprinted from [ref] under a CC BY license, with permission from [name of publisher], original copyright [original copyright year].”

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Reviewer 1

The authors used typological approaches and numerical method to analyse spatial features of palace buildings of Kumbum Monastery, classified them into four types, and discussed the evolution of their features to obtain the development mechanism of the palace buildings of Kumbum Monastery. The research is valuable. However, there are still some problems:

Structure. Literature Review had better be separated from the Introduction and make a separate section. Study Objects and Methodology should be placed in a separate section of “Methodology”. Background Overview is the content about the study area. It should also be in the “Methodology” section. The above is only the suggestion, please adjust the structure according to the actual situation.

Table. Please pay attention to the format. For example, 3-line table is usually required in published articles.

2.1 Development Background of Tibetan Buddhism in Qinghai. This part is not the key content, and it is too long now. It is suggested refining.

The reference format should be revised according to the journal standard.

The clarity of all figures needs to be improved, and some formats are wrong as shown in Fig.2. Please provide the original figures in the attachment.

In "4.1 Spatial and temporal Evolution and features of the Palace Buildings", I hope to see the evolution of the features of palace Buildings on a map/diagram, but you only gave the pie chart. In view of “Spatial and temporal evolution”, considering adding meaningful maps or modifying this subtitle.

Also, the language needs to be polished by at least one native speakers.

Reviewer 2

The manuscript focuses on spatial features and evolution mechanism of buildings in Kumbum monastery. The topic is interesting, the study area is relevant; consequently, the manuscript can attract many readers in this field; however, a thorough revision is unquestionably needed before acceptance to improve the scientific quality. See my comments below:

1. The structure of the article is chaotic and the writing pattern is not scientific enough. The current structure is difficult to read and cannot form a smooth logical system. It is hoped that the manuscript can be reorganized in the order of Introduction - Methods - Results and discussion - Conclusion;

2. The introduction of research methods is relatively thin. The rationality of the method is the guarantee of the scientificity of the article. The author should introduce the use methods of various materials in detail, while the current introduction is too general. This paper has almost no discussion on typology. I don't know how the author uses the typological method to analyze. It is speculated from the article that the author should want to introduce the morphological evolution of buildings in Kumbum Monastery with the method of process typology, but it is lack of accurate definition. In addition, how is the importance of numerical analysis reflected in the research？ I think the author should strengthen the interactive analysis of this data and the evolution mechanism of building types, not just a simple list.

3. I think section 2, 3 and 4 of the article can be integrated for in-depth discussion without parallel listing. At present, the introduction of historical narration and architectural features are independent and lack of organic connection.

4. The research on historical buildings focuses on the protection and utilization, but the article just lacks too much content on this point. The theoretical and practical significance of the research should not be ignored. What guiding value does the research results have for the protection of buildings in Kumbum Monastery? What measures should be taken to continue the tradition of Tibetan Buddhist architecture in the future? These should be described in detail in the discussion section.

5. The abstract should be revised according to the modification of the article, and at least include a brief description of the building type.

6. The main analysis and thinking can be put in the "Results and discussion", and the conclusion only needs to condense the main points of the article.

7. It is recommended that the influence mechanism can be omitted, focusing on the changes in the structure of the temple, and not discussing the influencing factors. Because there are many influencing factors, it is beyond the control of the author. A brief discussion can be done through literature review.

8. There should be an explanation for terms such as Central Plains, not the Central Plains, but the representative name of the Chinese culture?

In addition, it is recommended to invite experts in geopolitics and international relations to review the language of the article.

[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: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

Reviewer #2: 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: No

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: The authors used typological approaches and numerical method to analyse spatial features of palace buildings of Kumbum Monastery, classified them into four types, and discussed the evolution of their features to obtain the development mechanism of the palace buildings of Kumbum Monastery. The research is valuable. However, there are still some problems:

Structure. Literature Review had better be separated from the Introduction and make a separate section. Study Objects and Methodology should be placed in a separate section of “Methodology”. Background Overview is the content about the study area. It should also be in the “Methodology” section. The above is only the suggestion, please adjust the structure according to the actual situation.

Table. Please pay attention to the format. For example, 3-line table is usually required in published articles.

2.1 Development Background of Tibetan Buddhism in Qinghai. This part is not the key content, and it is too long now. It is suggested refining.

The reference format should be revised according to the journal standard.

The clarity of all figures needs to be improved, and some formats are wrong as shown in Fig.2. Please provide the original figures in the attachment.

In "4.1 Spatial and temporal Evolution and features of the Palace Buildings", I hope to see the evolution of the features of palace Buildings on a map/diagram, but you only gave the pie chart. In view of “Spatial and temporal evolution”, considering adding meaningful maps or modifying this subtitle.

Also, the language needs to be polished by at least one native speakers.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript focuses on spatial features and evolution mechanism of buildings in Kumbum monastery. The topic is interesting, the study area is relevant; consequently, the manuscript can attract many readers in this field; however, a thorough revision is unquestionably needed before acceptance to improve the scientific quality. See my comments below:

1. The structure of the article is chaotic and the writing pattern is not scientific enough. The current structure is difficult to read and cannot form a smooth logical system. It is hoped that the manuscript can be reorganized in the order of Introduction - Methods - Results and discussion - Conclusion;

2. The introduction of research methods is relatively thin. The rationality of the method is the guarantee of the scientificity of the article. The author should introduce the use methods of various materials in detail, while the current introduction is too general. This paper has almost no discussion on typology. I don't know how the author uses the typological method to analyze. It is speculated from the article that the author should want to introduce the morphological evolution of buildings in Kumbum Monastery with the method of process typology, but it is lack of accurate definition. In addition, how is the importance of numerical analysis reflected in the research？ I think the author should strengthen the interactive analysis of this data and the evolution mechanism of building types, not just a simple list.

3. I think section 2, 3 and 4 of the article can be integrated for in-depth discussion without parallel listing. At present, the introduction of historical narration and architectural features are independent and lack of organic connection.

4. The research on historical buildings focuses on the protection and utilization, but the article just lacks too much content on this point. The theoretical and practical significance of the research should not be ignored. What guiding value does the research results have for the protection of buildings in Kumbum Monastery? What measures should be taken to continue the tradition of Tibetan Buddhist architecture in the future? These should be described in detail in the discussion section.

5. The abstract should be revised according to the modification of the article, and at least include a brief description of the building type.

6. The main analysis and thinking can be put in the "Results and discussion", and the conclusion only needs to condense the main points of the article.

7. It is recommended that the influence mechanism can be omitted, focusing on the changes in the structure of the temple, and not discussing the influencing factors. Because there are many influencing factors, it is beyond the control of the author. A brief discussion can be done through literature review.

8. There should be an explanation for terms such as Central Plains, not the Central Plains, but the representative name of the Chinese culture?

In addition, it is recommended to invite experts in geopolitics and international relations to review the language of the article

**********

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

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. 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.

PONE-D-21-25675R1Temporal and Spatial Features of the Palace Building Space of Qinghai's Kumbum Monastery and its EvolutionPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Dec 16 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:

• 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,

Jun Yang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments :

The authors have not adequately addressed all of the my comments raised in a previous round of review, need further modification.

[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

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

**********

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: All the questions have been addressed. It is recommended for publication.

Reviewer #2: The authors have not adequately addressed all of the my comments raised in a previous round of review, need further modification.

**********

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

[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.

PONE-D-21-25675R2Temporal and Spatial Features of the Palace Building Space of Qinghai's Kumbum Monastery and its EvolutionPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 03 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,

Jun Yang

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):

The author has deleted some redundant contents and the structure of the article is clearer, but there are still some problems that will affect reading and understanding: 1. Line83-119, "Literature review" should be combined with the "Introduction". Through literature review, discuss the shortcomings of previous research, and lead to the problems to be solved in this paper. Figure 2 should be the content of "Materials and methods". I don't know why it appears in the first paragraph. 2. Line167-274, these contents should not be placed in the "Materials and methods", but should appear in the secion "Discussion". 3. Line540-551, there are "Results and Discussions" before, and there is another paragraph of discussion here, which is very confusing. This part should be retitled and integrated into the "Results and Discussions". In a word, the structure of this paper still needs to be adjusted, otherwise it can not meet the reading needs of readers.

[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

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: All comments have been addressed.It is recommended for publication.

Reviewer #2: The author has deleted some redundant contents and the structure of the article is clearer, but there are still some problems that will affect reading and understanding:

1. Line83-119, "Literature review" should be combined with the "Introduction". Through literature review, discuss the shortcomings of previous research, and lead to the problems to be solved in this paper. Figure 2 should be the content of "Materials and methods". I don't know why it appears in the first paragraph.

2. Line167-274, these contents should not be placed in the "Materials and methods", but should appear in the secion "Discussion".

3. Line540-551, there are "Results and Discussions" before, and there is another paragraph of discussion here, which is very confusing. This part should be retitled and integrated into the "Results and Discussions".

In a word, the structure of this paper still needs to be adjusted, otherwise it can not meet the reading needs of readers.

**********

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

[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.

PONE-D-21-25675R3Temporal and Spatial Features of the Palace Building Space of Qinghai's Kumbum Monastery and its EvolutionPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 15 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,

Jun Yang

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:

The authors have adequately addressed most of the comments raised in a previous round of review, but the references are not enough, some latest outcomes should be referred, for example: 1) The Effect of Climate Change on the Fall Foliage Vacation in China. Tourism Management. (On line doi：10.1016/j.tourman.2013.02.020); 2) The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management（2020）, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070; 3) Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.02.008.

[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

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: No comments. All questions have been addressed.

Reviewer #2: The authors have adequately addressed most of the comments raised in a previous round of review，but the references are not enough, some latest outcomes should be referred, for example: 1) The Effect of Climate Change on the Fall Foliage Vacation in China. Tourism Management. (On line doi：10.1016/j.tourman.2013.02.020); 2) The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management（2020）, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070; 3) Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.02.008.

**********

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

[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.

Temporal and Spatial Features of the Palace Building Space of Qinghai's Kumbum Monastery and its Evolution

PONE-D-21-25675R4

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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,

Jun Yang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Accept

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 #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 #2: Yes

**********

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

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 #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 #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 #2: The authors have adequately addressed all of the comments raised in a previous round of review，and I feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication.

**********

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 #2: No