Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Home was not a Safe Haven: Women’s Experiences of Intimate Partner
Violence during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria
Version: 
1 
Date: 
02 Nov 2020
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript presents an original and relevant contribution to the field of
domestic violence against women. The authors clearly elucidated the research
question, and the chosen methodology is appropriate to answer the objective of
the study. Modifications are suggested below to improve the manuscript for
potential publication.
1- Grammatical review of the text, especially in relation to punctuation.
2- In relation to the media reports from the internet, it was not clear how many of
them were found in the search, although the authors stated that 2 were excluded
due to not fitting the inclusion criteria.
3- The number of analysed cases from the media and from the organisation
serving abused women should be stated in the methodology section.
4- Three of the seven case reports came from an NGO - highlighted by the
authors as the main one serving women in Oyo state during the lockdown. In the
results and discussion section, the hindered access of formal and informal
sources was largely attributed by obstacles imposed by the lockdown, but the
access of some of those women to the NGO was not discussed. Was this
something that facilitated their critical path in any way? Was there any perceived
difference regarding help seeking and institutional support among the cases
identified by the media and the ones from the NGO? 
5 - The case reports could be reviewed to improve confidentiality. For example,
there is no need to state in which media platform the case was reported (BBC) as
this was not analysed in the study. 
6 - The authors had access to confidential information of the IPV cases from the
NGO. How was ethical approval waived? And how did the researchers have
verbal informed consent from two women of the NGO? This is an overly
sensitive issue that needs clarification. 
7 - The discussion could be improved and should consider the growing
references on this topic that have been recently published.
Publons Reviewer Recognition
. Springer Nature can send verification of this
review directly to Publons (a subsidiary of Clarivate Analytics). If you would
like to take advantage of this service, please click on the “Yes” option below.
Your name, email address, title of the reviewed manuscript, name of the journal,
and date of your review submission (the “Review Data”) will then be transmitted
to Publons upon publication of the manuscript. If you have already registered at
Publons, they will notify you of the receipt of this review and update your profile
as per your settings and their policy. If you are not registered with Publons, you
will receive an email from them asking you to register in order for them to be
able to recognize your review on your new profile page. Publons may use the
Review Data to generate derivative metadata for the benefit of Publons and you
as a reviewer, carefully considering the sensitivity of such information. For
example, Publons may verify your record as a reviewer by updating your profile
published on its webservice if you have registered for such service or help
editors to identify candidate reviewers. Please find the details of processing in
Publons’ privacy policy 
https://publons.com/about/terms
Yes
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 publication 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 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 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.
Reviewer Publication Consent.
 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
) if this manuscript is accepted for
publication. Any comments that I do not wish to be included in the published
report have been included as confidential comments to the editor, which will not
be published.
If you are not happy for us to publish this report, please contact the editorial
office before completing the review.
If you wish, you can include your name in your published report. Please note
you must decide whether to include your name at the start of the process and
confirm this decision whenever prompted. If you change your decision later, we
will not be able to publish your name.
I agree to the terms of the CC-BY 4.0 license; please 
do not
 publish my name
with my report. (default)
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?
No
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