PONE-D-23-01755A systematic review of the prevalence of lifetime experience with ‘conversion’ practices among sexual and gender minority populationsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Salway,

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: N/A

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: really interesting job. I have suggestions to make.

1) In introduction part before to focus on CP practice please explore briefly the main problems that transgender people could copy in our society. For example in health care (Lavorgna L, Moccia M, Russo A, Palladino R, Riccio L, Lanzillo R, Brescia Morra V, Tedeschi G, Bonavita S. Health-care disparities stemming from sexual orientation of Italian patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A cross-sectional web-based study. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2017 Apr;13:28-32. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2017.02.001. Epub 2017 Feb 5. PMID: 28427697.) or from economic point of view.

2) please revise the English of the manuscript

3) please add a graphical summary

Reviewer #2: Paper review

The paper “A systematic review of the prevalence of lifetime experience with ‘conversion’ practices among sexual and gender minority populations” it's a challenging writing with a complex subject of study, that is focused on SGM people who had experienced CP in different countries around the world. I think it has a major issue that deserves all the support and visibility from the scientific community, mainly from the psychiatric and psychological researchers that deal with mental health within SGM´s groups.

I wrote a review separately for each section of the text and focused on bringing the positive aspects of the research and pointing out some possibilities of improvement.

Introduction

Here language is clear and attends to technical needs with no many difficult words. The introduction is very detailed and gives to the reader a complete description on the methods and shows the unique aspects and relevance of this paper, it does a really good job of giving a general idea to the whole text.

Something that could make the beginning a little more interesting for those who are reading would be to mention some data about gender and sexual diversity among the writers of the article. SGM people that are researchers and are reading the paper can create more boundaries to the research if they get to see diversity.

Methods

The description of the methods is well structured. I really liked that it mentioned the use of references contemplating SGM writers, because this increases visibility and helps break up with stigma.

Even though there are not relevant studies to the research that provides data about the economical aspects of SGM who experienced CP, this aspect could be a little more contextualized to the economical aspects of the countries in general. I´m pointing this out because a part of the SGM population, such as transgender people, a part of this community has needs on body modifications, to affirm gender and decrease dysphoria feelings some may proceed with surgeries, to put implants, to change the voice and other aspects... However, to access these procedures with safe medical circumstances guaranteed it's very expensive, at the same time, most of the countries do not offer the procedures in their public health systems.

“Risk of bias”, is a concept that I never had heard of before reading this paper. This concept could be more detailed and explained, maybe it would be interesting to mention why the group chose Hoy´s method for this research.

Analysis

This is the most complex part of the article. I understand the need of using all the scientific terms and concepts. However the writing here contains too many unusual words with a very specific vocabulary, this kind of language can become a challenge for researchers and readers that are not native english speakers.

Results

The way the authors present the results of this study is very satisfactory because it illustrates in many aspects the experiences that SGM faces during CP incidences. Sadly, the data presented reveals how oppressive and violent the manifestations of CP can be. One very positive aspect is the critical observation on how some of the articles do not define CP and how this can increase risk of bias and stigma between SGM groups.

Discussion

The discussion on the topic is one of the most important parts of this paper, because it is the part where the authors compare some features of the research based on the findings of the data analysis.

The limitations were well described and justified with the complexity of the subject.

Implications

I suggest that in this topic, a more detailed analysis on the CP´s link to the religious groups or practices, and by doing so an intersectional relation with transgender community and gay man. It has been known that many religious centers can be responsible for creating violent processes to gender non-conforming groups and sexual minorities. Would be interesting to investigate the basis of the religions that are mentioned in these studies and point out who they are. If they are Catholic, Protestants, Jewish, or any other…

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Raphaellie Lázaro Rezende Silva Maciel

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A systematic review of the prevalence of lifetime experience with ‘conversion’ practices among sexual and gender minority populations

PONE-D-23-01755R1

Dear Dr. Salway,

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,

Emily Lund

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: 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

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

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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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

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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

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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: I have no more suggestions to make, since the author had made changes and added new information that was required.

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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: Yes: Raphaellie Lázaro Rezende Silva Maciel

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