PONE-D-24-01617The Evaluation General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) Reliability Generalization: A Meta-AnalysisPLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Author,

The manuscipt is accepted with monir changes, which are given below:

1. The Introduction and Discussion section needs to more detailed with recent references.

2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria should be clearly mentioned.

3. The article needs to be reviewed for grammatical mistakes.

Thank you.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

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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?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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: 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: Overall this research article seems quite coherent. It covered all of its obejctve clearly. I recommend to make discussion section more argumentatve rather than simply reaching to conlcusions abruptly, authors should build a logcal argument. I think more discussion and analysis is need in discussion section. Make sure toclealry state all point that this study discovered. Moroever there are few typo errors on page 5, 7, 17 & 18. Please recheck. These errors include absence of dot at the end of sentence or other typo errors. Moroever, in sytematic review research we expect it to be more detailed and indepth.This point is lacking in this research specifically in introduction and discsussion section. Please clearly state why you inlcuded certan studies and exlcuded other. Please elaboartae exclusion and inlcusion criteria. Moreover, also mention rational behind it.

Reviewer #2: Overall the research paper impressively and thoroughly explored an essential subject but I would like to share few recommendations.

1. your title should include a word "of" before General health questionnaire as it is creating a little confusion in understanding.

2. Method section of Abstract (4th line) should end with the word "results" (unbiased results) for better understanding.

3. Paper should include a more robust literature review and rationale with reference to the usage of GHQ in diverse populations, cultures and languages.

4. The paper's quality is uplifted by the careful attention given to its methodology regarding the screening procedure but it lacks in understanding of Inclusion criteria. Must add a more clear and specified inclusion criteria regarding diversity of studies. so that it may relate well with the results. Add well explained Procedure in method section.

5. The results section related to Test-Retest reliability is not providing enough information for a good understanding. I would suggest to revise this part.

6. The results regarding "heterogeneity" needs more explanation.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Rukhshanda Majeed

Reviewer #2: No

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The Evaluation of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) Reliability Generalization: A Meta-Analysis

PONE-D-24-01617R1

Dear Autrhor,

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.

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Kind regards,

Shazia Khalid, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: