Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Short Birth Interval and Associated Factors among Women of Chil d Bearing Age in 
Northern Ethiopia, 2016  
 
Version: 0 Date: 12 Mar 2019  
 
Reviewer: Prince Adu  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Title: The title could be revised. Remove the comma after "Northern "and insert a comma after 
"Ethiopia". Consider replacing "woman" with "women".  
Lines 12 -15: Delete. Repetition.  
In the Abstract (Background), it is not clear what the rationale for the study is. The authors 
provide a national statistic but argues that the issue is not well investigated in a region in the 
country. The authors then proceed to state that most of the studies focus on family planning 
utilization. The connection or justificati on here is not clear.  
Table 3: The authors present p -values. It is unclear if these values refer to the crude OR or 
adjusted OR.  
Methods: The method employed is not well described. The authors should explicitly state the 
outcome variable. In the Line 11 9, the authors stated that "those who did not remember the birth 
date or did not have a birth certificate of their child" were excluded from the study. However in 
Line 137, they state that the outcome variable was measured using either the "respondent's 
memory or birth certificate.." This contradiction needs to be clarified.  
Line 139: The authors should cite the studies/published literature which informed their adapted 
questionnaire.  
Line 155 -156: Please clarify the consent process. If per Table 1, 65.3% we re illiterate, how were 
the participants able to provide WRITTEN CONSENT as stated in Line 155 -156?Or did the 
authors mean verbal consent?  
Controls: It is not clear which variables are being adjusted for.  
The quality of written English is not suitable f or publication. Throughout the manuscript, there 
are typos, grammatical errors, missing prepositions or articles and awkward sentence structures. 
A fee are  
Line 92: "..as far as the author's knowledge" could be "to the best of the authors' knowledge.."  
Line 95: Replace "existed" with "existing"  
Line 301: Remove "were"  
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 assess  
 
Are the conclusions 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 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.  
 
I recommend additional statistical review  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Not suitable for publication unless extensively edited  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing i nterests, 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 publication of this  
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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 currently applying for any patents relating to t he 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  
 
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