PONE-D-23-04465Coupling coordination and driving factors of digital economy and carbon emission efficiency in China: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis based on 30 provincesPLOS 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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: No

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: 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 subject of this manuscript has been published in several journals. The introduction, literature, methods, and discussion sections need new literature support in my assessment. The authors must improve these sections. Remove minor typo errors from the whole manuscript. Briefly discuss the scientific contribution of this study to the body of knowledge.I have to reject the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript presents findings on the coupling coordination and driving factors of digital economy and carbon emission efficiency in China using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The paper covers an interesting topic and the achievements can be useful for other case studies. However, after reading the research, I had some concerns with it, which prevented me from recommending its publication at the moment. I will elaborate on my concerns below.

1. The authors used the extreme value method to process the raw data, however, no account was given of how to process the standardized data and thus assess the DIE development index.

2. The selection of influencing factors lacks relevant theoretical support, and it is recommended to add.

3. The manuscript explores models “Economic–social driven”, “Economic–technical driven” and “Economic–environmental driven”, however, it lacks an in-depth analysis of the models.

The naming of the patterns is open to question.

4. The discussion of results is rather shallow. The findings are interesting but the discussion on findings can be substantially improved.

The author should discuss more about the "story" behind the data.

5. The originality and novelty of the paper needs to be further improved and clarified. Research contributions should be reflected in comparisons with existing research

6. Writing needs to be significantly improved.

7. The clarity of the picture is too low.

Reviewer #3: 1. The research on digital economy and carbon emissions has been relatively mature, and the literature review has only sorted out the digital economy and carbon emissions efficiency respectively, there is a lack of literature on the impact of digital economy on carbon emissions such as pathways, mechanisms and strategies, etc.

2. Line 62-63. “The rapid development of the DIE has aroused widespread concern and discussion in academic circles at home and abroad.” This paper is submitted in an international journal, what does it mean at “home and abroad”.

3. Line 140-141. The literature referenced in this paper to delineate the degree of coupling coordination does not address the research topic, i.e., the digital economy and carbon emissions, and whether it can explain the scientificity and effectiveness of the classification.

4. In the construction of the indicator system, the paper refers to existing studies, whether there are innovations in this regard, and there is no description of the selected indicators. In the literature review, the authors state that the Chinese context is reflected to the maximum extent possible, and about how this is reflected

5. Line 232-234. The author indicates “Highly coordinated provinces have great potential to progress to high-quality coordination, and there is much space for further improvement.”

6. In this paper, why were the years 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2019 chosen for the graphs instead of all the years studied and are they representative or for other reasons.

7. Line 264-265. The Moran’s I index shows a fluctuating change as a whole, and it is only an increase in 2019 relative to 2011, not a gradual increase.

8. Line 314. There is no Table 8 in this paper.

9. Line 315. Table 5 should be in the correct trilinear form

10. Fig 2-Fig 3, The author should improve the clarity of the map and strictly adhere to the mapping specifications

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Coupling coordination evaluation and driving path of digital economy and carbon emission efficiency in China: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis based on 30 provinces

PONE-D-23-04465R1

Dear Dr. Guangming,

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,

Jing Cheng

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 #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #4: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #5: 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 #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: Yes

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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

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: 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 #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: 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 #2: The authors have revised and improved the manuscript, however, there are some previous issues that have not been resolved.

1.The discussion of results is rather shallow. The findings are interesting but the discussion on findings can be substantially improved.

The author should discuss more about the "story" behind the data.

It is recommended that the author add a chapter "Discussion".

Reviewer #4: The paper is well-written and publishable to the standard of Plos one. I ecommended the acceptance of this article.

Reviewer #5: The author has made substantial improvements based on the reviewer comments. The revised article now meets the publication standards of the PLOS One journal and is suitable for publication.

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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

Reviewer #4: No

Reviewer #5: Yes: Nihal Ahmed

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