Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Why Girls Get Married Early in Sarawak, Malaysia - An Exploratory Qualitative Study  
 
Version: 1 Date: 19 Jul 2019  
 
Reviewer: Nan Zhou  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript titled Why Girls Get Married Early in 
East Malaysia? - An Exploratory Qualitative Study (BMWH -D-19-00170_R1). I was the 
previous reviewer for this m anuscript. The authors have been responsive to most of my 
suggestions. Still, there are some concerns that limit the possibility of the publication in the 
BMC Women's Health.  
 
First, as I mentioned in the last review, the major aim of this study is to exam ine the factors 
contributing to the child marriage, which should be the major focus throughout the whole 
manuscript. In the introduction, some of the sentences addressed this question but were displayed 
here and there. I think these sentences should be coh erent and elaborated in a more detailed way.  
 
With this said, subheadings can be helpful in the introduction section. Right now, the 
organization of the introduction is a bit mess. For instance, the authors stated in the first 
beginning that "child marriag e is more common in developing 52 countries in Sub -Saharan 
Africa and South Asia," and re -stated the prevalence of the child marriage towards the end of the 
intro. This could be placed in one section. Moreover, the detrimental effects of child marriage 
should be stated early to inform the readers why it is important to examine the factors related to 
child marriages.  
 
In terms of grouping the participants into three age groups, comparisons of the themes across the 
three groups can be informative but may be biased given the limited numbers of participants in 
each group. Thus, it would be better to inform the readers about how many participants there 
were in each group.  
 
Finally, I appreciate the authors' efforts to add an implication and future direction sect ion but this 
section could be more substantive in terms of detailed suggestions.  
 
Are t he 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.  
 
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 manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects req uire 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, e ither 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 rel ating 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 compet ing 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 understan d that my name will be included 
on my report to the authors and, i f 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 available 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 not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal