Reviewer’ s report
Title: An Epidemiological Study of Cervical and Breast Screening in India: District-Level
Analysis
Version: 0Date: 25 Mar 2020
Reviewer: Joseph Enebe
Reviewer's report:
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Please overwrite this text when adding your comments to the authors.The study is a nice topic but requires a lot of organization to make it publishable in BMC Women
health.The following areas below needs correctionTitle: well capturedAbstract: The background did not capture clearly the purpose of the study.
Background:
Line 31-34 - "Statistics suggest that about 527,624 and 1,671,149 new cases of cervical and breastcancers are added every year" provide referenceSome part of the rationale for Spatial Dependence and Data source should be made part of
methods section
The background was well captured and enough literature was used to justify the study.MethodsThe methods section should be made to follow this sequence for easy comprehensionThe methods section should follow the pattern in the authors guide for this journal:1.the aim, design and setting of the study2.the characteristics of participants or description of materials3.a clear description of all processes, interventions and comparisons. Generic drug names shouldgenerally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names inparentheses4. the type of statistical analysis usedline 3 page 8 - "queen's weight" should have first letters capitalizedResults1.The general demographics of the women should be stated at the beginning of this section2.Page 12 line 3: "To begin with, we plotted the values of the local I statistics" to be put in themethods or rephrase the sentence3.Page 12 line 24: "The OLS regression model was employed to examine the determinants ofcervical screening in India" sounds like author was still in methods. Rephrase sentence
4.Page 13 line 8: "Next, while examining the diagnostics of the OLS model, the variance inflation
factor (VIF)" sounds like author was still in the methods section, please rephrase the sentence5.detected multicollinearity in the regression analysis"6.Page 13 line 1: "After establishing the presence of spatial dependence, the spatial lag model was7.employed. The spatial lag coefficient parameter" sounds as if the author still in methods.Rephrase the sentence8.Line 1 page 14: "Thereafter, we employed the spatial error model" sounds as if still in methods.RephraseDiscussion
Page 15, line 47-52 "Studies in the past may have examined the determinants of
screening at the national and state levels in India, but to our knowledge, no study hascaptured district-level spatial variations in cervical and breast screening." Was mentionedpreviously so delete or rephrasedpage 15 line 52-54: "Districts are the smallest administrative unit in India. Analysis at this levelyield meaningful insights." Describe this in methodspage15 line 54-59: "The primary objective of the study was to examine the spatial patterns ofscreening and its determinants" this sentence should have been mentioned at the beginning ofmethodspage 16 line 1: remove the article "the" both models and also in line 12page 16 line 17: "Similar associations have been documented in other studies as well (Lin, S. J.,2008)". Add more referencespage 16 line 47: "screen them for cancer and lifestyle diseases" delete them and add appropriategroup referred to.Page 16 line 52: "panchayats" capitalize the first letter.Page 16 line 54: "People's Plan Programs" Is this a proper noun? If not write with small lettersThe discussion in summary was short and hardly captured major findings of the studyConclusion
Conclusion it was verbose and not sharply related to the purpose of the study. Inferences and
recommendations of the conclusion seems not related to the study.Declaration section should follow this pattern as in the BMC women health guidelines for authors.
Ethics approval and consent to participateConsent for publication
Availability of data and materials : Source of data used was not stated at the appropriate position
Competing interestsFundingAuthors' contributionsAcknowledgementsAuthors' information (optional)
References: The referencing style of the manuscript should be changed to Vancouver ReferencingstyleAcknowledgement (line 26-39) should be properly positioned according to the journal style
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
No
Does the work include the necessary controls?
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.
Unable to assessAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
No
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an
additional statistical review?If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require furtherassessment in your comments to the editors.
I recommend additional statistical reviewQuality of written English
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:
AcceptableDeclaration of competing interests
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