Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Night-shift work duration and breast cancer risk: an updated systematic
review and meta-analysis
Version: 
1 
Date: 
11 Nov 2020
Reviewer's report:
- More suitable title should be selected for the article. Title should decrease to
10-12 words.
- The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal
results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the
article, so it must be able to stand alone.
- It is suggested to present the structure of the article at the end of the
introduction.
- The necessity and innovation of the article should be presented to the
introduction.
- A flowchart should be added to the article to show the research methodology.
- Sections and sub-sections should be numbered in order.
- It is suggested to add articles entitled "Avabratha K. et al. A Study of Maternal
Breast Feeding Issues during Early Postnatal Days" and "Lin An et al. GRIK3
rs490647 is a Common Genetic Variant between Personality and Subjective
Well-being in Chinese Han Population" to the literature review.
- The major defect of this study is the debate or Argument is not clear stated in
the introduction session. Hence, the contribution is weak in this manuscript. I
would suggest the author to enhance your theoretical discussion and arrives your
debate or argument.
- More suitable title should be selected for the table 1 instead of "(Nested) Case-
control studies included in the meta-analysis".
- Following, you will find some new related references which should be added to
literature review:
Ai, W. Participatory Action Research into Low Literates' Medical Needs in Rural
Communities;
Zare, H. Effects of Salvia Officinalis Extract on the Breast Cancer Cell Line.
- Page 7: the following paragraph is unclear, so please reorganize that:
"Regarding the two studies estimating night time work exposure by hours of
transcontinental flight time(41, 42), we estimated conservatively that 5,000 flight
hours is equal to approximately 5 years of night- shift work, based on published
labor estimates (61). Concerning one study, the years on ships were known to
involve night shift work and cross time zones (40)."
- Much more explanations and interpretations must be added for the results,
which are not enough.
- It is suggested to compare the results of the present research with some similar
studies which is done before.
- Please make sure your conclusions' section underscore the scientific value
added of your paper, and/or the applicability of your findings/results, as
indicated previously. Please revise your conclusion part into more details.
Basically, you should enhance your contributions, limitations, underscore the
scientific value added of your paper, and/or the applicability of your
findings/results and future study in this session.
- DOI of the references must be added (you can use "https://crossref.org/").
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Declaration of competing interests
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questions:
1
. 
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salary from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially
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Do you have any non-financial competing interests in relation to this
paper?
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interests' below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
Yes
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes