PONE-D-23-27566Quantitative evaluation of China’s private universities provincial public funding policies based on the PMC-Index modelPLOS ONE

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Muhammad Farooq Umer, PhD Epidemiology and Health Statistics

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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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: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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: This study uses PMC-index model and text mining technology to establish an evaluation index system for the provincial special public funding policy of private universities in China. The comments are as follows:

1. The authors mentioned that PMC-Index model has been used in some areas related to public policy. Has it been used in evaluating the funding policy in private education sector worldwide and specific countries? If yes, the authors need to address it and explain what this study can contribute to the relevant research area based on previous studies, e.g., improved research methods, new evidence.

2. There are some language errors need to be revised in the manuscript, e.g., P24 (Table 7), the Chinese characters should be revised to English.

3. Figures should be provided with high resolution, e.g., 300 dpi.

4. Some of the references are from journals in China. If the references are in Chinese language, the authors need to note the language name in each of the references.

Reviewer #2: It should be rejected because of limited originality.There are many very similar papers to your work in Chinese (some of them mentioned in your list of refs) and this renders your paper of limited novelty?

Reviewer #3: This manuscript uses PMC-index model and text 38 mining technology to establish an evaluation index system for the provincial special 39 public funding policy of private universities in China. These findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of China's special public funding policies for private higher education institutions. The structure of the paper is logical and the research methodology and results are presented in a way that is clear and concise.

�Advantages and benefits of the proposed approach should be given in detail. Also, the research gaps and the novelty of this study should be highlighted and summarized.

�Methodology: The authors have used various research methods but need to justify why these were used over the others. For example: why PMC-Index model and not thematic analysis.

�The methodology section requires a major revision. The authors should rewrite it professionally.

�Provide a reference for the claim stated in lines 115 and 121.

�The quality of Figure 1 is not good.

�The 13 policies are not sufficiently representative of the overall situation and some of the relevant policies will not reflect the relevant terms in the headings. Therefore, in my opinion, the authors should consider increasing the sample size by enriching the search method for further studies.

�Could you please check whether it is possible to additionally find articles published from 2022?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Hongxin Ma

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Quantitative evaluation of China’s private universities provincial public funding policies based on the PMC-Index model

PONE-D-23-27566R1

Dear Dr. Guo,

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,

Muhammad Farooq Umer, PhD Epidemiology and Health Statistics

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 #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: 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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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 #3: 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 #3: 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: The authors have replied the comments of the reviewer and haver revised the manuscript according to them. Thus, the current manuscript can be accepted after proofreading.

Reviewer #3: I think the references need to be updated substantially, as the current version has too many studies published from China (25), which is inappropriate for an international journal that caters for different research backgrounds and readers.

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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: No

Reviewer #3: No

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