-->PONE-D-25-49179-->-->A Multi-Country Qualitative Evaluation of Rapid Mortality Surveillance During the COVID -19 Pandemic-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Congdon,

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Pasyodun Koralage Buddhika Mahesh

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: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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: Yes

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:  The article as a whole is more like a research report than an academic paper, and I am puzzled by the scientific nature of the methodology used in the article, and the relatively small amount of work that went into the article. Please enrich the article further by taking into account the comments of other reviewers, and I will give my next revision after the overall improvement.

Reviewer #2:  1. Correct typos/duplications: “low- and middle-income income countries”; “evidence-informed informed risk ratings.”

2. Harmonize spelling/usage: choose digitization or digitalization and use consistently; standardize “COVID-19” (no space before/after hyphen).

3. Add footnotes to define “Number of deaths recorded through 2022” (RMS-captured deaths vs. national totals; inclusion/exclusion of community deaths; duplication handling).

4. Figure Suggestion - Add a simple schematic/logic model showing inputs → processes → outputs → outcomes for RMS (with facilitators/barriers around it). This helps generalizability beyond COVID-19

5. “COVID -19” → “COVID-19” (remove stray spaces).

6. Country names are listed however quotes are region-attributed, add one sentence explaining the anonymization rationale, and to confirm transcripts were de-identified and stored securely with restricted access.

7. General Specificity Improvements may be prudent - namely with acronyms like first mention of CRVS, and throughout the table with footnotes

8. Check punctuation around ellipses in quotations and bracket conventions.

9. Replace passive/wordy phrases where meaning can be tightened (e.g., “were able to be operationalized” → “were operationalized”).

10. Ensure consistent use of Em-Dashes vs. Hyphens

Reviewer #3:  The manuscript provides an extremely valuable and technically sound qualitative process review of the deployment of Rapid Mortality Surveillance (RMS) in 13 different nations. The approach, which included double-blind coding and in-depth interviews, was carried out carefully and is suitable for this kind of study. The conclusions, which suitably draw from the thematic findings, offer compelling proof of the crucial roles that government ownership, digitalization, and interagency cooperation have in the success of RMS.

The question about statistical analysis is N/A because this is a qualitative study that focuses on implementation methods.

The manuscript's important findings are accessible since it is written in clear, standard English and presented in an understandable manner.

In terms of data access, the authors attest that Vital Strategies provides the interview transcripts that underpin the conclusions, exhibiting a dedication to data access while upholding essential confidentiality.

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Reviewer #1: Yes:  Wentai Bi

Reviewer #2: Yes:  Shrihaan Chaudhary

Reviewer #3: No

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A Multi-Country Qualitative Evaluation of Rapid Mortality Surveillance During the COVID -19 Pandemic

PONE-D-25-49179R1

Dear Dr. Congdon,

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,

Pasyodun Koralage Buddhika Mahesh

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 #2: 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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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 #1: No

Reviewer #2: 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

**********

-->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: Excellent work. I appreciate the thoroughness and care that you have put in your revisions. All work has been done thoroughly and with great scientific rigor, and is technically sound.

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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:  Wentai Bi

Reviewer #2: Yes:  Shrihaan Chaudhary

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