PONE-D-24-37585The Influence of Investor Sentiment on the Chinese Stock Market amid COVID-19: An Event Study AnalysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Yong,

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,

Ooi Kok Loang, PHD

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: Partly

Reviewer #2: No

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

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: No

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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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: Comment 1: The introduction covers various aspects of financial crises and the impact of COVID-19, it does not clearly articulate the specific research gap that this paper aims to address. What new insights or contributions will this study provide that have not already been covered by prior work? A stronger statement of the research objective and the gap in existing literature is necessary.

Comment 2: Terms like “tail-risk,” “Value at Risk (VaR),” and “Conditional Value at Risk (CoVaR)” are introduced without enough context for a non-specialist reader. While the terms may be relevant, they should be explained more clearly to ensure the audience fully understands their importance and how they will be used in the study. A more gradual introduction to complex concepts might be useful, especially for readers unfamiliar with advanced financial models.

Comment 3: The criteria for sample selection (excluding ST or PT labeled samples, financial sector firms, and those with negative net assets) are clear and aimed at ensuring high data quality. However, the reasons for excluding the financial sector are not discussed. Given the importance of the financial sector in the market, this exclusion should be justified more thoroughly.

Comment 4: The GubaSenti tool and its origin are well-described. However, a more detailed explanation of how GubaSenti operates and its specific methodologies for sentiment analysis would be beneficial. Additionally, while it is noted that the tool’s reliability and validity were established in previous studies, a brief summary of these studies or their key findings could enhance the credibility of the tool’s application in this research.

Comment 5: The conclusion asserts that the research contributes to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese stock market by highlighting the role of mood in market instability. While this is a valuable insight, the statement could benefit from more explicit connections to existing literature. How does this finding specifically add to or challenge previous research on market reactions to pandemics?

Comment 6: The recommendation for investors to focus on pharmaceutical stocks during the early stages of the pandemic and to adjust their holdings based on government priorities is practical. However, the advice should be supported by detailed analysis. How were these recommendations derived from the research findings? Including specific data or examples would strengthen the credibility of these investment strategies.

Reviewer #2: Comments

1.The background of this study is weak, and the introduction section has not been motivated. The authors should highlight the innovation of this study.

2.While the contents in the opening remark focus on tail risks and spillover effects, the whole results and discussion seem to deviate from these arguments. The consistency, across the introductory part, literature review, results and discussion, and concluding remarks, could be improved.

3.On a related note, some irrelevant and duplicated arguments and paragraphs are noticeable.

4.The adversarial effects of COVID-19 on stock markets have been intensively investigated in previous empirical studies. What are the contributions and innovations of this study? The authors should further accentuate and clarify the novelty of approaches, contents, and datasets used in this study.

5.The data section should incorporate more information, including the rationale for selecting the Chinese stock market and data period, data frequency, and criteria for dividing firms into sectors.

6.The sentiment analysis needs to clarify which datasets are used in identifying investors’ sentiments. Also, what are the results derived from GubaSenti tool? A clear specification of the approach, GubaSenti tool, could improve potential readers’ understandability.

7.What is the “event” introduced in this study? As a key experimental setting, this should be further delineated. All the variables and model specifications need to be further clarified.

8.The discussion section narratively lists the numerical results and statistics with few interpretations, falling short of delivering informative insights. The interpretation of findings could be improved by comparing them to existing empirical evidence.

9.The authors could focus on the results of the “Event window” to accentuate the adversarial effects of COVID-19 on stock markets.

10.The authors should have endeavored to remedy the endogeneity issues; however, only a limited elaboration is provided.

11.Provide the limitations and implications which can be derived from the unique findings of this study.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-24-37585R1The Influence of Investor Sentiment on the Chinese Stock Market amid COVID-19: An Event Study AnalysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sun,

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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ACADEMIC EDITOR:  Thank you for your revision; a minor revision is requested to improve the overall English quality, particularly focusing on fluency, clarity, grammar, and consistent, precise word choice.

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Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 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,

Jae Wook Song

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:

Thank you for your thorough revision. Based on the latest reviewer feedback, I am requesting a minor revision.

The remaining concern pertains to the overall quality of the English writing. The reviewer has specifically suggested a comprehensive proofreading of the manuscript.

Please improve the fluency, clarity, and grammatical correctness of the text. In particular, pay close attention to the consistency and precision of word choice throughout the manuscript.

Once these revisions are complete, the manuscript will be re-evaluated for final acceptance.

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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

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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

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

Reviewer #1: 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

**********

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: No

**********

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: The authors have adequately addressed the previous comments and made substantial improvements to the theoretical framework, hypotheses development, and conceptual clarity. The revised manuscript reflects a clearer distinction between constructs and presents stronger theoretical justifications for the proposed relationships.

However, before the manuscript can be considered for publication, I recommend that the authors conduct a thorough language and grammatical review. Several sections still contain minor linguistic inconsistencies and awkward phrasings that may affect the overall readability and professionalism of the paper. A careful language edit, preferably by a native English speaker or professional editing service, is advised to enhance clarity and flow.

Once these minor language issues are addressed, I believe the paper will be suitable for publication.

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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: No

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[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.

The Influence of Investor Sentiment on the Chinese Stock Market amid COVID-19: An Event Study Analysis

PONE-D-24-37585R2

Dear Dr. Sun,

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,

Jae Wook Song

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: