Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Social capital and fertility behaviors: A cross -sectional stu dy in Iranian women health care 
workers.  
 
Version: 0 Date: 06 Jan  2020  
 
Reviewer: Mojgan Mirghafourvand  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
The following is suggested to improve the quality of the article.  
 
1. Please remove the statistical test in the abstract. It's not necessary.  
 
2. Please check your Keywords with Mesh data b ase. It seems that the key words need some 
revisions.  
 
3. The introduction section is relatively immature. You could expand it a bit more clearly 
for readers. You can, link social networking and childbearing. Also, explain more about 
the impact of social ca pital on childbearing behaviors.  
 
4. In the method section, "defective responses" is not an exclusion criteria. This does not 
mean the criteria for inclusion and exclusion.  
 
5. On page 8 of the article, you mentioned the use of a web -based calculator to calc ulate the 
mean difference between the two groups. Explain clearly what the two groups mean.  
 
6. This sentence "These women try to be pregnant because of the awareness of the risks of 
becoming pregnant at a young age and avoiding its risk, as well as the des ire to have a 
second child sooner." on page 12 needs a reference. How are you sure about this phrase?  
 
7. In the section of discussion, you mentioned the relationship between level of education 
and number of children given birth, but the discussion was not related to this result.  
 
8. What is means of "mount" in table 1? It is more correct month.  
 
9. In the Table 1, number of participants in shift work category are not correct (total is 533). 
Also, why percent of education category are not on hundred? Please ch eck the numbers 
and percentages in all of this table. Some other calculations do not appear to be correct.  
 
10. When you do not use a mark in tables, you do not need to mark it at the bottom of the 
table. (Example: you did not used of this mark Ɨ in table 2).  
 
11. Based on 95 confidence interval, the assumption P -value for social capital (high vs. low) 
in table 3 is not correct. Please check again. Also, if it is not correct, you should change 
the result and discussion sections related to this result.  
 
 
Best regards  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are the concl usions drawn adequately 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 manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
I recommend additional statistical review  
 
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, f ees, funding, or salary 
from an organisation t hat may in any way gain or lose financial ly from the 
publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2.  Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation t hat 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 currently 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 al l 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 nam e will be included 
on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted f or publication, my named report 
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors' 
responses. I agree for my report to be made availabl e under an Open Access Creative Commons 
CC-BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understand that any comments 
which I do not wish to be included in my named report can be in cluded as confidential comments 
to the editors, which will no t be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal