PONE-D-23-24900The coupling coordination characteristics of China’s health production efficiency and new urbanization and its influencing factorsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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Academic Editor

PLOS 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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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: No

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: In general, I think this article is not well organized.

1. The abstract is too long and the point is not obvious;

2. The structure of many paragraphs in the introduction is also unclear, for example, the First of all is not followed by a subsequent expression. Many references are also irregular. For example, Yu Jiali conducted a full-factor analysis…;

3. The section of Materials and Methods is too redundant. It is proposed to merge 2.1.1 with 2.1.3; to merge 2.1.2 with 2.1.4; to merge 2.1.6 with 2.1.7. In addition, The Thiel index is a very common indicator and does not need to be included in the methodology.

4. It is recommended that Figure 2 not be presented with a radar chart, but with a line chart similar to Figure 1, so that it is easier to compare the trends between the two.

5. Why is only the spatial evolution pattern of the health production efficiency introduced? Why was the spatial evolution pattern of the new urbanization level not considered?

6. The analysis of influencing factors is too simple, and some explanations are far-fetched. For example, why is coefficient of population density significantly positive? Your explanation lacks conviction.

7. Some expressions in the discussion section do not correspond to reality. For example, what you said “For the first time, this article examines the interrelationship…”

Reviewer #2: I have reviewed the manuscript titled "The coupling coordination characteristics of China’s health production efficiency and new urbanization and its influencing factors." While the study addresses an important aspect of the relationship between health production efficiency and urbanization in China, there are several comments and concerns regarding the manuscript:

Lack of Clear Research Objectives:

The article mentions measuring health production efficiency and new urbanization in Chinese provinces, but it does not clearly state the research objectives or specific research questions. The manuscript should provide a more concise and focused statement of its goals.

Methodological Issues:

The article mentions the use of the super-efficient SBM model, entropy value method, Thiel index, coupling coordination degree model, and Tobit regression analysis, but it lacks details on the methodology employed. A more comprehensive explanation of these methods, data sources, and their application is necessary to understand the study's validity and replicability.

Normality of error term:

I highly recommend empirically evaluating the normality of the given error term in equation 5, and its results in the revised paper. Alternatively, the author can add the given assumption with the addition of given studies in the revised article as “The given error term in equation 5 is assumed to be normally distributed at zero mean value and constant variance [1,2].

[1] Understanding farmers’ intention and willingness to install renewable energy technology: A solution to reduce the environmental emissions of agriculture.

[2] Handling endogenous regressors using copulas: A generalization to linear panel models with fixed effects and correlated regressors

Limited Presentation of Findings:

The article provides general statements about the trends in health production efficiency and new urbanization but lacks specific findings or quantitative results. Readers need more concrete data and insights to assess the significance of these trends.

Explanation of Coupling Coordination:

While the article discusses the coupling coordination degree between health production efficiency and new urbanization, it does not clarify what this means or its significance for residents' well-being and socioeconomic development. A more detailed explanation of this concept and its practical implications is needed.

Limited Discussion of Influencing Factors:

The article mentions factors such as population density, economic development, government financial investment, and government health investment affecting coupling coordination. However, it does not elaborate on how these factors impact the relationship or their policy implications.

Clarity and Organization:

The article would benefit from improved clarity and organization. The flow of information is somewhat fragmented, making it challenging for readers to follow the logical progression of the study.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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The coupling coordination characteristics of China’s health production efficiency and new urbanization and its influencing factors

PONE-D-23-24900R1

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Yu Zhou

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

**********

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

Reviewer #2: 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 #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

**********

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: All comments have been addressed. The paper is publishable in its current form. All comments have been addressed. The paper is publishable in its current form. All comments have been addressed. The paper is publishable in its current form.

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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

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