PONE-D-23-32332The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Short- and Long-term Interactions in the Agricultural Market: Evidence from a Connectedness Network ApproachPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Su,

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 submit your revised manuscript by Nov 25 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.

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• 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'.
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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Difang Huang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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We will update your Data Availability statement on your behalf to reflect the information you provide.

Additional Editor Comments:

To enhance the literature review, we suggest that you consider incorporating the following papers from the publication list:

1. Bao, Z., & Huang, D. (2021). Shadow banking in a crisis: Evidence from FinTech during COVID-19. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 56(7), 2320–2355.

2. Huang, D. (2020). How effective is social distancing. Covid Economics, Vetted and Real-Time Papers (59), 118–148.

3. Li, N., Chen, M., Gao, H., Huang, D., & Yang, X. (2023). Impact of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households at early COVID-19 pandemic in China. China Agricultural Economic Review, 15(1), 109–133.

These papers are relevant to your study as they provide insights into the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of the economy, including the financial sector and rural households. Bao and Huang (2021) investigate the role of FinTech during the COVID-19 crisis, which could provide valuable context for understanding the broader economic implications of the pandemic. Huang (2020) examines the effectiveness of social distancing measures, which may have indirect effects on the agricultural market through changes in consumer behavior and supply chain disruptions. Li et al. (2023) explore the impact of lockdown measures and government subsidies on rural households in China, which could be particularly relevant to your study as it focuses on the agricultural market. Incorporating these papers into your literature review will help to strengthen the theoretical foundation of your study and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the agricultural market.

In addition to improving the literature review, we have the following detailed comments for you to address in your revision:

1. Please provide a more detailed explanation of the bivariate GARCH model and its relevance to your study. Explain why this model is appropriate for analyzing the connectedness network in the agricultural market during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Clarify the methodology used to construct the connectedness network and provide more information on the data sources and sample period.

3. Discuss the potential limitations of your study and any assumptions made in your analysis. Address how these limitations may affect the interpretation of your results and the generalizability of your findings.

4. Expand on the policy implications of your findings, particularly in the context of short- and long-term investment strategies in the agricultural market. Provide specific recommendations for policymakers based on your results.

Please ensure that you include the following references in your revised manuscript:

Bao, Z., & Huang, D. (2021). Shadow banking in a crisis: Evidence from FinTech during COVID-19. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 56(7), 2320–2355.

Huang, D. (2020). How effective is social distancing. Covid Economics, Vetted and Real-Time Papers (59), 118–148.

Li, N., Chen, M., Gao, H., Huang, D., & Yang, X. (2023). Impact of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households at early COVID-19 pandemic in China. China Agricultural Economic Review, 15(1), 109–133.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript and thank you for considering PLOS ONE as a venue for your research.

Sincerely,

[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.]

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PONE-D-23-32332R1The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Short- and Long-term Interactions in the Agricultural Market: Evidence from a Connectedness Network ApproachPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Su,

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 submit your revised manuscript by Dec 17 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.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Difang Huang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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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: 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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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 #1: Yes

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 #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: Cite the following paper:

Bao, Z., & Huang, D. (2022). Reform scientific elections to improve gender equality. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(4), 478–479.

Bao, Z., & Huang, D. (2023). Gender-specific favoritism in science. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Chen, M., Li, N., Zheng, L., Huang, D., & Wu, B. (2022). Dynamic correlation of market connectivity, risk spillover and abnormal volatility in stock price. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 587, 126506.

Chen, M., Wang, Y., Wu, B., & Huang, D. (2021). Dynamic analyses of contagion risk and module evolution on the SSE a-shares market based on minimum information entropy. Entropy, 23(4), 434.

Li, N., Chen, M., Gao, H., Huang, D., & Yang, X. (2023). Impact of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households at early COVID-19 pandemic in China. China Agricultural Economic Review, 15(1), 109–133.

Li, N., Chen, M., & Huang, D. (2022). How Do Logistics Disruptions Affect Rural Households? Evidence from COVID-19 in China. Sustainability, 15(1), 465.

Wu, B., Huang, D., & Chen, M. (2023). Estimating contagion mechanism in global equity market with time-zone effect. Financial Management, 52, 543–572.

Reviewer #2: The authors are suggested to cite the following papers:

Wu, B., Huang, D., & Chen, M. (2023). Estimating contagion mechanism in global equity market with time-zone effect. Financial Management, 52, 543–572.

Zhang, Y., Huang, D., Xiang, Z., Yang, Y., & Wang, X. (2023). Expressed Sentiment on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the Lockdown in Shanghai. Available at SSRN 4486863.

Zhou, Y., Huang, D., Chen, M., Wang, Y., & Yang, X. (2022). How Did Small Business Respond to Unexpected Shocks? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in China.

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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

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.

The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Short- and Long-term Interactions in the Agricultural Market: Evidence from a Connectedness Network Approach

PONE-D-23-32332R2

Dear Dr. Su,

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,

Difang Huang, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: