-->PONE-D-26-06991-->-->Developing a contracts law keyword list (CLKL) for academic legal education: A corpus-based, keyness-informed study-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Alasmary,

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Dear Author-->--> -->-->The reviewers have recommended a Major Revision.-->--> -->-->The comments are below.-->--> -->-->Best regards.

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: N/A

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: No

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: I do not have comment. This paper is ready to be published.

Reviewer #2: Reviewer Comments

This paper examines a pedagogically relevant topic and offers a well-organised, corpus-based attempt to construct a CLKL from academic textbooks. It holds potential significance for ELP and legal vocabulary pedagogy, particularly in enhancing students' understanding and usage of legal terminology in academic contexts. However, this paper needs further revisions before it can be published.

Firstly, your work has to be clearer about what it adds to the field of study (aka. scholarly contribution). At this time, the key contribution appears to be the creation of another specialised word list, this time based on texts on contract law instead of contracts. This is useful, but the paper should make it clearer what contributions (i.e., new methodological or conceptual contributions) it makes beyond just building on earlier work or extending the existing literature.

Secondly, the Results and Discussion section (pages 21-35) is so long and has some repetitive parts. The tier-by-tier presentation repeats similar observations, particularly regarding the predominance of nouns and the relative distribution of adjectives and verbs. This approach makes your paper’s analysis less powerful. I suggest the author shorten these parts and interpret the major findings more synthetically. As long as you present the discussion more clearly, you don’t need to separate the Results and Discussion sections.

Thirdly, the pedagogical implications (mainly appearing in possible classroom intervention using the CLKL section: Page 33) are reasonable but remain rather general) are reasonable but remain rather general. The discussion would be stronger if the author linked specific properties of the CLKL more directly to specific classroom applications. At present, the teaching suggestions read more like general EAP/ESP recommendations than implications emerging directly from the present dataset.

Fourthly, the data availability information appears inconsistent and should be checked carefully. In the submission materials (Page 5 in submitted version), the manuscript indicates that restrictions apply, but it also states that ALL relevant data are within the manuscript and supporting files (Page 6 in submitted version). This discrepancy should be clarified to ensure full consistency with journal policy.

There are also a few smaller issues. Some novelty claims should be moderated, given that the manuscript itself cites prior contract-law-related vocabulary studies. In addition, one self-citation is still incomplete and marked “journal details to be added (Page 38),” which should be corrected.

Overall, this paper is potentially valuable, but in its current version it is more descriptive than analytically strong. I therefore recommend major revision.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Reviewer Comments.pdf

Developing a contracts law keyword list (CLKL) for academic legal education: A corpus-based, keyness-informed study

PONE-D-26-06991R1

Dear Dr. Alasmary,

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,

Rachel Suet Kay Chan, 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 #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 #2: Yes

**********

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

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 #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 #2: 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: Thank you for your further revisions and for your valuable contribution to this area. In my view, the manuscript is now suitable for publication in PLOS ONE.

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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: Yes: Qiang Li

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