Peer Review History

Original SubmissionApril 11, 2022
Decision Letter - Thomas Phillips, Editor

PONE-D-22-10622Experience, Challenges, and Facilitators of Health Data Use among Performance Monitoring Teams (PMT) of Health Facilities in Eastern Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Abera,

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 note that we have only been able to secure a single reviewer to assess your manuscript. We are issuing a decision on your manuscript at this point to prevent further delays in the evaluation of your manuscript. Please be aware that the editor who handles your revised manuscript might find it necessary to invite additional reviewers to assess this work once the revised manuscript is submitted. However, we will aim to proceed on the basis of this single review if possible.

The reviewers have raised a number of concerns that need attention. They request additional information on methodological aspects of the study, revisions to the statistical analyses and they question the internal and external validity of the results reported.

Could you please revise the manuscript to carefully address the concerns raised?

Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 30 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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Thomas Phillips, PhD

Staff 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

[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: Dear Editor

I trust that this finds you in good spirits.

I appreciate the opportunity to review the manuscript and have found pleasure in studying it through.

Use of data in health facilities is an important factor that guides operations to where they matter most and further helps in planning for both short term and long term.

This manuscript have identified several factors contributing to both use and failure to use data as purported.

The following require attention for the manuscript to improve:

Formatting: Attention needs to be paid on following on prescribed formatting rules like how to write titles, citation and referencing, etc.

Abstract:

-few typo suggestions

Introduction:

-Typo suggestions and several referencing style inconsistency Generally, the manuscript does not satisfactorily follow Vancouver style as prescribed in guidelines.

Methods:

-Typing and language recommendations have been made.

-Under data analysis, authors need to consider matters of backward translation.

-This section mentions that there were key themes and there is no mention of sub-themes yet there seem to be several of these Also indication on how trustworthiness was ensured is important.

Results:

-Emerged themes require regrouping/renaming/restructuring.

-Results Data under the themes can be better understood if themes are framed differently.

-A fifth theme on relevance of PMT strategy and its implementation has been recommended as some of subthemes do not fit well in current themes

-Theme 1 can be re-titled to 'Membership, roles and experiences of PMT members at the health facilities'

-Given the sample size for the study, and generally qualitative studies, study identifiers in this study are likely to compromise anonymity. Please consider using other more neutral identifier like participants ID. With other facilities, it happens that there is only one program planning team leader and subsequently someone reading the manuscript could easily identify who said what.

-Authors have often discussed participants' responses under results as opposed to showing statements from participants under results then discuss under discussions. Subsequently, some participants' statement are missing under results.

-Transcriptions require to be confirmed as one of the statements is ambiguous and may lead the reader to confusion (Since it is not a working day, we are paying some pocket money for the PMT members.”)

-'Effect of multiple committees in the facility on PMT' subtheme can be better positioned under Barriers

Discussion:

-'On the other hand, health workers reported the desire to engage in on-the-job learning, workshops,

seminars, refresher courses and continuous training.' This sentence dose not reflect what transpired under results.

-

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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: Yes: Sibusiso Nomatshila

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[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.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-10622 (1)_SC.pdf
Revision 1

All the comments raised by the reviewer have been addressed and attached in a point-by-point response in the attached "response to Reviewers" word document. Kindly refer the responses on the document as they are detail and long. Thank you.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Dawit Wolde Daka, Editor

PONE-D-22-10622R1Experience, Barriers, and Facilitators of Health Data Use among Performance Monitoring Teams (PMT) of Health Facilities in Eastern Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Abera,

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: Based on the reviewer comments and my own observations I will recommend Minor Revisions on the paper. Please pay attention to the comment provided by reviewer 2 and below points:

  • Make sure that the formatting of the manuscript is according to the journal’s requirements. Include required sections following the conclusions statement. 
  • Use square brackets (i.e., [   ]), rather than (   ) for inside text citation of references. Full stops should come after the in-text citations (i.e., [1,3]. )
  • Briefly explain how the CFIR framework has been applied to guide the present study. 
  • The organization of the methods sections has unclarity. The description of sample size and sampling strategy should be provided prior to data collection procedures. Thus, it is highly recommended if it is restructured as follows: 
    • Study setting
    • Study design and participants: here try to briefly describe the study design, sample size, sampling strategy, and inclusion/exclusion criteria. 
    • Data collection
    • Data quality control: here briefly explain the strategies used to ensure the quality of data. 
    • Data processing and analysis
    • Ethical consideration 
  • There are grammar and language flaws that requires revisions.  For instance: take a look at the statement in page 11 that starts with: 'planning, identifying gaps and intervening****'; page 12: 'the focus of PMT meeting****etc..."
  • The paper has reported a very good results, however the discussion is weaker. More evidences/literatures should be used to support the justifications and the implications of observed results should be briefly presented. Moreover, authors are highly suggested to discuss the limitations of the present study (if any) 

Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 01 2023 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.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Dawit Wolde Daka

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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)

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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

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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: (No Response)

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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

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: The paper has scientific merit provided that the authors include or justify the given comments. Most importantly, how they utilized CFIR framework in presenting their results. In addition, in the discussion section, the authors should give clear justification on how the PMT has been used the poor data (reported as a barrier) for performance improvements.

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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: SC NOMATSHILA

Reviewer #2: No

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[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.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-10622_R1_SC.pdf
Attachment
Submitted filename: 1 PONE-D-22-10622_R1 (2).pdf
Revision 2

The comments and questions raised by both the academic editor and reviewer were insightful and helped improve our manuscript. We have gone through each comments raised and attached under the authors responses in the system. We would like to express our deep gratitude. Thank you!

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Academic Editor Responses.docx
Decision Letter - Dawit Wolde Daka, Editor

PONE-D-22-10622R2Experiences, Barriers, and Facilitators of Health Data Use among Performance Monitoring Teams (PMT) of Health Facilities in Eastern Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Abera,

Thank you for submitting your revised manuscript to PLOS ONE. Though majority of the previously provided comments are addressed, still there are few issues from reviewer 2 that requires revisions and responses. Providing responses only may not be sufficient and the two issues raised by reviewer 2 should be addressed within the manuscript to make clearer to readers. Thus, pay attention to those comments and submit the revised version of the manuscript. 1. Within the manuscript briefly describe the themes and sub-themes related to experience, barriers and facilitators2. In the methods, provide more information regarding how CFIR framework guided the present research and at what stage of the research. Reviewer comments are indicated in the attached file. Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 02 2023 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.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Dawit Wolde Daka

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

[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 #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 #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: (No Response)

**********

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: I am grateful to the authors for submitting the revised manuscript. Their hard work and dedication is impressive.

However, I noticed that some of my comments in the result section were not addressed in their revised manuscript.

Please also see the attached doc.

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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 #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.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: 2 PONE-D-22-10622_R2 (1).pdf
Revision 3

Dear Editor and Reviewers,

Thank you for your comment on our manuscript. We have tried to revise all the remaining comments on the manuscript. We hope we have addressed your concerns in this round. Thank you.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Author Responses_V4.docx
Decision Letter - Dawit Wolde Daka, Editor

Experiences, Barriers, and Facilitators of Health Data Use among Performance Monitoring Teams (PMT) of Health Facilities in Eastern Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.

PONE-D-22-10622R3

Dear Dr. Abera,

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,

Dawit Wolde Daka

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Dawit Wolde Daka, Editor

PONE-D-22-10622R3

Experiences, Barriers, and Facilitators of Health Data Use among Performance Monitoring Teams (PMT) of Health Facilities in Eastern Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.

Dear Dr. Abera:

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

Mr Dawit Wolde Daka

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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