PONE-D-22-02316Public expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on climate action by citizens and governmentPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Savin,

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Ghaffar Ali, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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[This work was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [grant agreement n° 741087] and by a María de Maeztu Program for Units of Excellence awarded to ICTA-UAB by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF grant number 19-18-00262]. S.V.-T. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Department of Science and Innovation [RYC-2017-22782].]

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[This work was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [grant agreement n° 741087] and by a María de Maeztu Program for Units of Excellence awarded to ICTA-UAB by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF grant number 19-18-00262]. S.V.-T. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Department of Science and Innovation [RYC-2017-22782]]

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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: Partly

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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 article addresses the critical issue of public expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on climate action by citizens and government. The article is interesting and is of high quality. However, I have some below-mentioned concerns.

1. In the section "2.1 Data collection" the authors stated that "In this study we draw on two open-ended questions from an online survey conducted in June-July 2020 in Spain." The author should explicitly mention what kind of online platforms were used to collect responses, e.g., social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.) and/or email? Although the authors have mentioned, "The survey was conducted in Spanish language by a professional panel survey company "Netquest. " But I still believe the individual data collection sources should be indicated.

2. What techniques were employed to cope with the sample bias?

3. The authors used an online survey in this study, which is unquestionably a more convenient, robust, and cost-effective survey method. However, the authors should acknowledge in the paper that these types of surveys have limitations. For example, authors can mention the survey's inability to reach difficult populations such as the elderly and those with no educational background.

4. Furthermore, a discussion section should be included that interprets and describes the significance of your findings in light of what was already known about the research problem being investigated, as well as to explain any new understanding or fresh insights about the problem after you've taken the findings (any novel or unexpected results) into consideration. In my opinion, the inclusion of a discussion section can add to the quality of the findings of your article.

5. Finally, there are some typo errors that should be corrected in the revised version.

Reviewer #2: In this paper “Public expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on climate action by citizens and government” authors presented the Spanish citizen expectation about the COVID-19 impact on climate action by the public and government. This paper is a good attempt at understanding public opinion regarding climate action and the pandemic impact on climate impact. There are several gaps that still need to be addressed in this paper before publication.

Details comments have been added to the separate document in the attachments. The authors should read the attached document. Decision - Major Revision.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments.pdf

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments.docx

Public expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on climate action by citizens and government

PONE-D-22-02316R1

Dear Dr. Savin,

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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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,

Ghaffar Ali, 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: Thanks for incorporating my suggestions. I believe the article in its current form can be published by PLOS ONE.

Reviewer #2: Authors have addressed the comments i have made. I don't have any further comments on this paper. Just make sure final submission have formatting according to the journal requirement.

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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