PONE-D-24-37304Highly stressful global event affecting health sciences students: a Longitudinal Qualitative StudyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Salazar Granizo,

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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: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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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

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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

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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: Timely topic and very good structured methodology for an qualitative study. But Figure one is not clear at all for reading. Rest of the results are readable but better to arrange in a easy readable format.

Reviewer #2: Thank you for the opportunity to review this manuscript. There was a huge amount of data and interesting approach presented here.

Overall, I found the claim for it to be qualitative research challenging. Three validated instruments were presented and 4 open ended questions (173). I didn't get a sense in the data collection or data analysis where the 3 validated instruments were situated. The hermeneutic method described as the core methodology was centered on 4 open ended questions. I wonder what the purpose of the instruments were when the results were not reported? Can more detail be given to the approach used for the volume of data (responses) analysised using ATLAS.ti? How did the codes become numerical data? I am unsure of the process of moving from ATLAS.ti to SPSS- perhaps it is my lack of understanding of this approach. 4 themes are set out in the abstract however it is not so evidence how these were developed in the analysis/ results sections. Described as topic not theme is results.

The timeframe of the data collection varied (191-192) was different to 128

Line 144 states questionnaires completed online and 192 in writing.

There are typos noted in the manuscript that need to be addressed (for example 578 the)

The discussion seemed to divert away from the goal of a highly stressful event and discuss more the specifics of the pandemic. It would be valuable to discuss within a wider context.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Highly stressful global event affecting health sciences students: a Longitudinal Qualitative Study

PONE-D-24-37304R1

Dear Dr. Salazar Granizo,

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,

Leona Cilar Budler

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Please read all comments and resolve some minor issues listed by reviewer. Also, check journal guidelines to improve paper quality.

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

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 #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: N/A

Reviewer #3: N/A

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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

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 #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 #2: Comments have been addressed and this is now a much clearer manuscript. Well done and I believe it can now move to publication

Reviewer #3: The proposed longitudinal qualitative design is well-suited to the study’s stated aims. The protocol demonstrates technical rigor, with a clearly defined target population, a robust longitudinal data collection strategy, and an analytic framework capable of capturing temporal changes in participants’ experiences. By enabling an in-depth exploration of the impacts of the global event on health sciences students over time, the methods provide the capacity to test the study’s underlying assumptions and to generate substantive, valuable insights for the field.

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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

Reviewer #3: No

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