Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: A Community -based Qualitative Study on the  Experience and Understandings of Intimate 
Partner Violence and HIV Vulnerability from the Perspectives of Female Sex Workers and Male 
Intimate Partners in north Karnataka state, India  
 
Version: 0 Date: 08 Mar 2017  
 
Reviewer: Joseph De Santis  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
This manuscript reports the findings of a qualitative study on IPV and H IV susceptibility among 
female CSW and male partners in India.  First, I commend you on your work on such an 
important topic.  The manuscript was timely and important.  I believe that the manuscript is very 
well-written. However, there are only three areas  that I could identify that need to be improved 
before the manuscript is ready for publication.  These include:  
1) Exactly which qualitative design was used to guide the study?  You need to tell the reader 
which design you used, and how that design influen ced your research questions, data 
interpretation, data analysis, etc.  Just using a "qualitative" design is not acceptable without 
further explanation.  From reading the manuscript, it appears that a qualitative descriptive 
design was used.  Is that the ca se? If so, please provide information on this design and show 
how this design influenced questions, data interpretation, analysis, etc.   
 
2) Please describe a bit more which data verification strategies were used to ensure rigour 
(trustworthiness) of the d ata.  Also, please provide a reference.  
 
3) Table 1 needs to be re -worked to provide more detail about the demographic variables that 
were reported by the study's participants.  Without this, the reader does not have enough 
detail about your sample to make sense of your findings.  
I think this is an important, timely manuscript.  I hope that the suggestions I provided for you 
have been helpful.  It was a pleasure to read your important work!  
Are the methods appropriate and wel l 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.  
 
Yes 
Are the conclusions drawn adequat ely supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
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 further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an  
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publi cation of this  
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose  
financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you curr ently applying for any patents relating to the content of the  
manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that 
holds  or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any  other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
below.  If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understand that my name will be included  
on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, my named rep ort 
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors'  
responses.  I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons 
CC-BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understa nd that any comments 
which I do  not wish to be included in my named report can be included as confidential comments 
to the  editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal