PONE-D-24-09653Exploring barriers and facilitators in Implementation Fidelity of Malaria Screening Intervention at Nepal-India Border Point-of-entry Health DesksPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Rijal,

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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Edison Arwanire Mworozi, M.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please address the reviewers comments and revise the paper!

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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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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: I would like to acknowledge all the authors of this paper for their hard work on this important issue. Saying that, I have few comments.

1. In the title, it is better to include the design of the study (mixed method)

2. Research gaps are not adequately addressed in the introduction part of the study.

3. In methods

- The study setting, it is better to say "the study is carried out" instead of "we carried out."

- Data collection and analysis, How do you maintain the quality of the data since you are using secondary data? For the qualitative part of your study, the researchers used key-informant interviews and FGDs, but the number of key-informant interviews and FGDs conducted in the study is not indicated. At last, I am not interested in the way quantitative data are analyzed.

4. The result part of the study need more work

Reviewer #2: COMMENTS

1: It would be helpful to include a sketch map showing the locations

2: The recommendation should be more specific, wherever possible it should be define to which authority they are targeted.

3: The abbreviation for point of entry (POE)should be defined in the Abstract and at first mention in the text and should be consistent ( POE or PoE)

4: Regarding concerns about RDTs. This is an important issue that should be further clarified: is there any technical confirmation of the true reliability of the tests? What measures are recommended to address this problem.

Minor edits:

64: risk=the risk

67: an= a standard

68: the points of entry

167: screening was not done

174: when a person

399: Study=The study

Reviewer #3: Dear Authors,

Your manuscript has a strong foundation, but there are some areas that could benefit from further refinement. Here are some specific comments:

1- Consider revising the language throughout the manuscript to ensure clear and impactful communication of your findings.

2- The abstract could be improved to more effectively convey the purpose and key takeaways of your research.

3- Some of the data, particularly regarding incidence and prevalence, may require updating with more recent information.

4- The positive number of cases is related to increased transmission or increase/improvement of testing?

5- Please ensure consistency in the fiscal year (FY) used when presenting data on P. falciparum infection and total malaria cases. When you talk about P.falciparum infection the baseline is 2019/20-2020/21 FY year, but when talk about the total number of malaria cases your FY is 2020/21-2021/22. please unify the information to have a better interpretation.

6- Please clarify how the data presented in lines 61-63 connects to the subsequent sections of the manuscript.

7- Is the novelty of your study specific to Nepal, or does it hold broader implications for other border regions?

8- Please introduce any abbreviations used in the text upon first mention (e.g., EDCD, IEC, CDO).

9- Please specify the method used to confirm positive malaria cases.

10- The data presented in lines 136-138 could benefit from further explanation to enhance reader understanding.

11- Clarify whether the "International Health Regulations 2005" are considered international or local regulations

12-Adding a section discussing the limitations of your study would further strengthen your work.

By addressing these points, you can significantly improve the overall clarity, strength, and impact of your manuscript.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes:  Ahmed A Adeel

Reviewer #3: Yes:  Majid Asgari

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PONE-D-24-09653R1Exploring barriers and facilitators in Implementation Fidelity of Malaria Screening Intervention at Nepal-India Border Point-of-entry Health Desks- A mixed methodPLOS ONE

Dear Dr.  Rijal,

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 Jan 20 2025 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,

Surya Bahadur Parajuli, MD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: 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 #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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 #2: (No Response)

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 #2: 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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Dear Authors,

Thank you for addressing my suggestions and questions. I appreciate the effort you put into revising the manuscript. However, I would like to raise some concerns regarding the method you used to present your revisions, which I found quite challenging to follow.

1. The use of the track changes feature has made the document overwhelming, as nearly all parts are highlighted in red, making it difficult to discern the updates. While I tried my best to interpret the changes, the process was not straightforward.

2. I did not receive a clear response regarding suggestion 3. Kindly provide feedback on this point in a more structured and transparent manner.

3. The phrase "any part of the world" is vague and requires clarification to ensure the statement is clear and meaningful.

4. Please follow standard formatting conventions by italicizing all species names used in the manuscript.

5. Include details about the suppliers of the kits used for detection in the methods section.

6. While the introduction has been updated, the references associated with this section have not been revised accordingly. 7. Please ensure consistency between the text and the references regarding the updated data for incidence and prevalence.

8. In your response, you mentioned the use of "secondary data." Could you elaborate on the meaning of this term and provide further context?

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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: Yes:  Adisu Asefa Kiyar

Reviewer #2: Yes:  Ahmed Adeel

Reviewer #3: Yes:  Majid Asgari

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Exploring barriers and facilitators in Implementation Fidelity of Malaria Screening Intervention at Nepal-India Border Point-of-entry Health Desks- A Mixed Method Study

PONE-D-24-09653R2

Dear Dr. Rijal,

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,

Khin Thet Wai, MBBS, MPH, MA

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

**********

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 #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

**********

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

**********

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: Generally, the authors have tried to address most of our previous concerns and comments.

Abstract: Better to start with background or introduction (not usual to start with the purpose)

Method: A mixed-method study was conducted. However, the result from the quantitative findings was not sufficient.

Recommendation: The authors have tried to identify several gaps in the qualitative interview results. However, the recommendations made by the authors were not sufficient enough.

Reviewer #3: Dear Authors,

Thank you for your responses; you have addressed most of my comments. I would like to kindly ask that if the kit used in your experiments is commercially available, please provide the details of the company that manufactures it, rather than the organization that supplied it to you. If the organization is the manufacturer of the kit, everything else seems fine.

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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: Yes:  Adisu Asefa

Reviewer #3: Yes:  Majid Asgari

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