-->PONE-D-25-37335-->-->Nourishing futures: assessing nutritional health among children under-five years of age belonging to a particularly vulnerable tribal community in southern India-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Shetty,

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Biswajit Pal, M.SC., Ph.D

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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

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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: The article gives information about the nutritional status of PVTG's children below 5 years of age. Most of the terms mentioned in the article are technical terms used by medical practitioners which may not be understood by the researchers of other fields. Explaining those terms in the footnotes would have made the readers understand the article better. Even though the statistical analysis was rigorous the mention of cultural factors was missing in the article which might also play a significant role in the determining the reasons for the stunned growth. Some of the associations concerning the malnutrition was ambiguous. Even though the article mentions about ITDS,ASHA etc their role concerning the malnutrition was not clear.

Reviewer #2: 1.Yes, it is a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions.

2. Yes, the analysis has been performed appropriately.

3. Yes, It is.

4. The manuscript is written in a standard english.

The study addresses an important public health issue, as nutritional health among under five years children in Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) remains a serious concern. The data appear to support the conclusions, and the statistical analyses have been conducted appropriately. However, several revisions are required to strengthen the scientific rigor and clarity of the manuscript.

The Introduction should include a brief description of the Koraga tribal community to provide adequate contextual background. The rationale for limiting the survey to 180 participants needs to be clearly explained. It should be specified whether this number represents the total population of under five children belonging to the Koraga community in the selected district or whether other factors determined the sample size.

In the Methodology section, the sampling procedure must be described in detail. The manuscript should clearly explain how the sample of 180 children was identified and recruited, including the underlying sampling framework and any inclusion or exclusion criteria. For infants and young children from birth to 24 months, it is essential to mention that, as per WHO recommendations, nutritional status was assessed using weight-for-length, along with length-for-age and weight-for-age indicators.

In the Results section, Table 2 reports data for 178 participants instead of 180. A clear explanation should be provided for this discrepancy, including whether any participants were excluded from the final analysis and the reasons for such exclusion. This information should be explicitly stated in the manuscript.

Finally, as the study focuses on under five years PVTG children, a dedicated section on study limitations is required.

Addressing these points through appropriate revisions is necessary to improve the scientific completeness and accuracy of the manuscript before it can be considered for publication.

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-->6. 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: Dr.G.V.Snigdha Raj

Reviewer #2: No

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Nourishing futures: assessing nutritional health among children under-five years of age belonging to a particularly vulnerable tribal community in southern India

PONE-D-25-37335R1

Dear Dr. Shetty,

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,

Biswajit Pal, M.SC., Ph.D

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: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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: 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: The article is quantitatively sound and qualitative aspects would have added more strength to it. Apart from that its a good paper.

Reviewer #2: Authors have adequately addressed the comments raised in the previous round of review and this manuscript is now acceptable for publication. Now the manuscript is technically sound and appropriate for the scientific research with data that support conclusion.

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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

Reviewer #2: No

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