Peer Review History

Original SubmissionNovember 6, 2023
Decision Letter - Ali Sorayyaei Azar, Editor

PONE-D-23-32993A Needs Analysis of ESP Courses in Colleges of Art and Design: Consensus and DivergencePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mao,

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.

                  The reviewer's comments (Major Revisions):

  • The study reports a needs analysis study with teachers and students. The main comments go to:
    1. The literature review part is mainly descriptive. More critical comments are expected.
    2. There is no theoretical framework.
    3. The data analysis is mainly descriptive, whereas it needs to be inferential.
    4. A critical discussion is missing.
    5. The pedagogical implications are needed in the conclusion.
Please ensure that your decision is justified on PLOS ONE’s publication criteria and not, for example, on novelty or perceived impact.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 20 2024 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,

Ali Sorayyaei Azar, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at 

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2. In your Data Availability statement, you have not specified where the minimal data set underlying the results described in your manuscript can be found. PLOS defines a study's minimal data set as the underlying data used to reach the conclusions drawn in the manuscript and any additional data required to replicate the reported study findings in their entirety. All PLOS journals require that the minimal data set be made fully available. For more information about our data policy, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability.

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Respectful Author(s),

Greetings.

The study reports a needs analysis study with teachers and students. The main comments go to:

1. The literature review part is mainly descriptive. More critical comments are expected.

2. There is no theoretical framework.

3. The data analysis is mainly descriptive, whereas it needs to be inferential.

4. A critical discussion is missing.

5. The pedagogical implications are needed in the conclusion.

Your paper needs to be revised and refined according to the comments posted above.

Thank you!

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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

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

Reviewer #1: No

**********

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

**********

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

**********

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: The study reports a needs analysis study with teachers and students. The literature review part is mainly descriptive. More critical comments are expected. There is no theoretical framework. The data analysis is mainly also descriptive. A critical discussion is missing. The pedagogical implications are needed in the conclusion.

**********

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Reviewer #1: No

**********

[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.

Revision 1

Dear Dr,

I would like to express my gratitude to you for the insightful comments and suggestions. I have carefully considered each point raised and have made significant revisions to the manuscript accordingly. Below, I detail how each comment was addressed:

Reviewer's Comment: Descriptive Literature Review

Revision Made: I have enriched the Literature Review section by incorporating more critical commentaries, thereby enhancing its critical depth and academic rigor. This addition aims to provide a more analytical perspective on existing literature.

Reviewer's Comment: Lack of Theoretical Framework

Revision Made: A theoretical framework has been developed and included, based on the insights gained from the revised literature review and the research design. This framework provides a stronger academic foundation for the study.

Reviewer's Comment: Descriptive Data Analysis

Revision Made: The data analysis section has been thoroughly revised. The focus now is on interpreting the implications and potential reasons behind the observed statistical trends and differences, moving beyond mere description to more inferential analysis.

Reviewer's Comment: Missing Critical Discussion

Revision Made: A comprehensive discussion section has been added. This section ties directly to the study’s title and is based on the updated data analysis, offering a critical examination of the findings in the context of existing literature.

Reviewer's Comment: Absence of Pedagogical Implications in Conclusion

Revision Made: The Conclusion and Implications section has been rewritten to explicitly include pedagogical implications. This addition is intended to highlight the practical relevance of the study’s findings in educational contexts.

Additionally, I have made the following improvements:

Introduction: The introduction has been revised for enhanced clarity and coherence, setting a clear context for the study.

Supporting Information: The questionnaire used in the research, along with the original collected data, has been included in the Supporting Information part, providing a comprehensive view of the research methodology.

I believe these revisions address the concerns raised by the reviewers and enhance the manuscript's contribution to the field. I hope that the revised manuscript is now suitable for publication in PLOS ONE.

Thank you for considering my submission, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Fengfan Mao

Hubei Institute of Fine Arts

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Ali Sorayyaei Azar, Editor

PONE-D-23-32993R1A needs analysis of ESP courses in colleges of art and design: Consensus and divergencePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mao,

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.

==============================

You are required to insert all the comments, revise the paper with highlighted areas, and resubmit it to the portal. Please follow up with the revision instructions. I could not see 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes' and a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 02 2024 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,

Ali Sorayyaei Azar, PhD

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.

Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Respective author(s),

Greetings! I hope this message finds you well.

You are required to include all the comments in your revised paper and resubmit the revised and refined paper to us. All the revised sections should be highlighted to indicate that the sections have already been revised. This is the protocol at PLOS ONE.

Please take the needed action.

Thank you!

Regards,

Dr Ali S Azar

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

[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.

Revision 2

As you couldn't see the Revised Manuscript with Track Changes and Manuscript(revised clean version), I have resubmitted them as separate files to the portal.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Ali Derakhshan, Editor

PONE-D-23-32993R2A needs analysis of ESP courses in colleges of art and design: Consensus and divergencePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mao,

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 Jun 03 2024 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,

Ali Derakhshan

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.

Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Dr. Mao,

Please revise and highlight your paper based on the previous comments.

Best,

Ali Derakhshan

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

[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.

Revision 3

Dear Dr. Derakhshan,

Thank you for your valuable feedback on my manuscript titled “A Needs Analysis of ESP Courses in Colleges of Art and Design: Consensus and Divergence”. I have carefully considered your comments and made substantial revisions to improve the quality of the paper. Below is a summary of the changes made in response to your suggestions:

Literature Review: I have restructured and rewritten the literature review section with a new structure and perspective. The revised version includes more critical comments and a thorough analysis of the existing literature to highlight the gaps and the relevance of my study.

Theoretical Framework: Based on the revised literature review, I have enriched the theoretical framework. This section now clearly outlines the theories and models that underpin the research.

Data Analysis: The data analysis section has been reformulated from a new perspective to include inferential statistics. I have incorporated a more robust analysis of the data, moving beyond descriptive statistics to offer deeper insights. Moreover, the formatting of tables in this part has been enhanced.

Discussion: The discussion section has been revised to reflect the new data analysis. It now includes a critical discussion of the findings, their implications, and how they relate to the existing literature.

Pedagogical Implications: In the conclusion section, I have added the pedagogical implications of my findings. This part highlights how the results can be applied in educational settings and suggests practical recommendations for educators.

Additionally, I have made the following improvements:

Abstract: The abstract part has been improved to respond to the changes in other parts of the paper.

References:As the paper undergoes revisions, additional references are included in the reference list.

I believe these revisions have significantly strengthened the manuscript, and I look forward to your feedback.

Thank you for your guidance and consideration.

Best regards,

Fengfan Mao

Hubei Institute of Fine Arts

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Ali Derakhshan, Editor

A needs analysis of ESP courses in colleges of art and design: Consensus and divergence

PONE-D-23-32993R3

Dear Dr. Mao,

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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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,

Ali Derakhshan

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Dear Dr Mao,

Thank you for your submission.

Best,

Ali

Reviewers' comments:

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Ali Derakhshan, Editor

PONE-D-23-32993R3

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mao,

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team.

At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following:

* All references, tables, and figures are properly cited

* All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission,

* There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset

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Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. 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.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Ali Derakhshan

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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