PONE-D-23-01657A scoping review protocol to understand the lived experiences of doing a PhD in Africa.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Omoya,

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does the manuscript provide a valid rationale for the proposed study, with clearly identified and justified research questions?

The research question outlined is expected to address a valid academic problem or topic and contribute to the base of knowledge in the field.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Is the protocol technically sound and planned in a manner that will lead to a meaningful outcome and allow testing the stated hypotheses?

The manuscript should describe the methods in sufficient detail to prevent undisclosed flexibility in the experimental procedure or analysis pipeline, including sufficient outcome-neutral conditions (e.g. necessary controls, absence of floor or ceiling effects) to test the proposed hypotheses and a statistical power analysis where applicable. As there may be aspects of the methodology and analysis which can only be refined once the work is undertaken, authors should outline potential assumptions and explicitly describe what aspects of the proposed analyses, if any, are exploratory.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Is the methodology feasible and described in sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicable?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above and, if applicable, provide comments about issues authors must address before this protocol can be accepted for publication. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about research or publication ethics.

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(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: o In terms of the analysis the following observations are noted:

1. Line 94 – 100 is part of the introduction as a justification for the study method chosen.

2. The search strategy referred to as “Step 2 Identifying relevant studies” refers only to health related databases. For example, utilising MEDLINE and MeSH to generate “key words, scientific terms and medical subject headings” for use in other database searches. If the scoping review is limited to medical/health related PhD candidate experiences only, this needs to be stated clearly in the study title, research question and introduction section.

3. In the search strategy using the broad terms “experience ”or “attitude” singly is not efficient.

4. The search should consider using individual country names (54) not limited to “Africa”.

5. The Boolean operator approach should be cited as the method described for combining key words and synonyms.

6. Describe the process of how duplicates will be identified and removed

7. Describe how reference lists in identified articles will be further investigated.

8. As a scoping review the following objectives may also be considered:

a) The types of methods used in the identified studies and gaps

b) The definitions of terms and description of concepts used in the identified articles

c) Can the study be used as a precursor to inform a systemic review?

9. Under study limitations use of published literature only (not grey literature where several other types of evidence on the topic maybe available such as policy reports, national development plan reviews etc).

10. Also language limitations (Selecting for English only literature likely to excludes a large proportion of the literature).

Reviewer #2: Author need to reconcile the title with the main thrust in the article. It would seem that author wish to "document lived experiences" rather than "understand...lived experiences". Line 36: author needs to clarify if Africa has equally been disadvantaged as subject of research. Author need to explain what is "brain drain" (line 68). Line 78 - 79 clarify the decade in focus. There is lack of consistency between the introduction and the aim of study. The scope and boundaries of the scoping review needs to be better defined. Line 194 - should be supported with evidence in form of literature citation. 206 indicate that research was already conducted while mode of writing shows research "scoping" is to be done. Need to reconcile. Authors need to show better relationship between the PRISMA flow chart and the focus of study

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dr. Caroline Sarah Ryan

Reviewer #2: No

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A scoping review protocol of the lived experiences of doing a PhD in Africa.

PONE-D-23-01657R1

Dear Dr. Omoya,

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,

Olushayo Oluseun Olu

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

I would recommend that the manuscript is copy-edited and proofread to correct the typographical and grammatical errors before final publication.

Reviewers' comments: