PONE-D-22-05342Towards Developing a Beef Meat Export Oriented Policy in Tanzania: -Exploring the Factors that Influence Beef Meat Exports-PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Kibona,

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László Vasa, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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 manuscript is technically solid, the data obtained by the authors supports the investigation and its conclusions, and thus the study exhibits novel research findings. What was particularly applauded was the careful examination of the causes for low exports, especially given that with the minor export constraints, Tanzanian beef meat exports could expand proportionately. According to the given data, the authors have not previously published this study. The paper's format is logical, beginning with an overview of the problem and progressing through the methods and sources of data collecting. The article spans the years 1985 through 2020 and employs descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as regression (econometric) analysis models, to examine the data. The studies are carried out to a high technical degree and are sufficiently detailed within the publication, demonstrating that the analysis was carried out appropriately and systematically. The authors have included all data supporting their findings in their publication in tables, along with explanations for those tables. Additionally, the conclusion is given in the appropriate manner, the evidence supports the conclusions, and the policy implications are reasonable and based on the findings. The research complies with all applicable ethical and research integrity standards, and the work adheres to appropriate reporting criteria and community standards for data access. The only (relatively minor) issue with the most recent version of the paper is that it contains a few typos, extra spaces before percentage characters, and missing spaces or letters (e.g. Tanzanian government, p. 10), but my overall recommendation is to publish the paper following these minor revisions to correct the typos.

Reviewer #2: Tha paper main goal is to discover the factors which influence the beef export of Tazania. Zhe topic is somewhat original, however, its statistical approach is, indeed. So I accept it as an original submission.

While I think the manuscript is a good base for a scientific communication, I think the following changes should be made before publication:

- Literature review should be a separate part of the paper. Now it is integrated with the introduction but not enough and isn't made appropriately. So the literature review part should be extended, touching the general issues of the beef value chain and export significance.

- The methodology description is too technical, hard to follow logically - it should be explained, why the selected method was chosen for the research (worth to consider to start the section with the conceptual framework).

- Source for Table 2 is not indicated

- Figure 1 is missing, we just can see the title

- The abstract should be rewritten to be more compact and comprehensive.

- Conclusions are too short and do not contain implications

- Limitations of the research should be indicated

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Towards Developing a Beef Meat Export Oriented Policy in Tanzania: -Exploring the Factors that Influence Beef Meat Exports-

PONE-D-22-05342R1

Dear Dr. Kibona,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

László Vasa, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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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

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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

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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

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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: After reading the submission, the adjustments, and the requests made by the other reviewer, I am certain that the authors have responded to all of the changes. Since I was able to see figure one, I believe that the changes have made this submission acceptable.

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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

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