Does Farmland Transfer Contribute to Reduction of Chemical Fertilizer Use? Evidence from Heilongjiang Province, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Editor
I carefully reviewed the manuscript entitled “Does Farmland Transfer Contribute to Reduction of Chemical Fertilizer Use? Evidence from Heilongjiang Province, China” (reference sustainability-1864115), by Cui et al., which submitted to Sustainability. The manuscript topic is adequate for the aims and scope of the journal. The authors should address the following comments and revise the manuscript accordingly:
1. What is the novelty of the research in the international context? The necessity and innovation of the article should be presented in the last paragraph of introduction section.
2. The introduction section needs to be updated with the recent articles available for similar studies.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2020.100869; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131176
3. Have the figures taken from another source, if so, need references for these. Please provide figure with high resolution in the revision version.
4. Authors only have introduced the results and I was not able to find any discussion about the results. I highly recommend the authors to compare their results with previous studies.
5. There were no information about statistical data analysis.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1,
Thank you for your careful review of our manuscript. Based on your recommendation, we have addressed all of the reviewers’ concerns and comments and are pleased to submit our revised manuscript, entitled “Does Farmland Transfer Contribute to Reduction of Chemical Fertilizer Use? Evidence from Heilongjiang Province, China” to Journal of Sustainability. All changes to our manuscript have been highlighted using red text.
The modifications have been explained point-by-point in our response to the reviewers’ comments. If you have further suggestions for this paper, please let us know, and we will carefully revise it further.
We thank you for your timely consideration of this manuscript.
Sincerely,
Cui Ningbo
Our point-by-point responses are as follows.
- What is the novelty of the research in the international context? The necessity and innovation of the article should be presented in the last paragraph of introduction section.
Response: Thank you very much for your reminder, and we completely agree with your point. We have revised the manuscript and added the necessity and innovation in the last part of the introduction, please see Row 76-87, Page 2. In addition, we conclude the article with the contribution of this paper, please see Row 453-462, Page 13.
- The introduction section needs to be updated with the recent articles available for similar studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2020.100869;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131176
Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We have revised the manuscript, updated and added the latest similar studies, the details show in red and references.
- Have the figures taken from another source, if so, need references for these. Please provide figure with high resolution in the revision version.
Response: Thank you for this reminder. The data in the paper are all from the subject’s field research data and are not available from other sources. For the picture issue, we have remapped the study area and provided higher resolution, please see Figure 1, Page 4.
- Authors only have introduced the results and I was not able to find any discussion about the results. I highly recommend the authors to compare their results with previous studies.
Response: Thank you very much for these questions, and we completely agree with your point. We have revised the manuscript by changing part 5 to “Discussion”, changing part 6 to “Conclusions and implication”.In particular, Part 5 discusses the results of this paper in some detail, compares them with previous research, and presents the contributions as well as the shortcomings of this paper. Please see Row 428-445, Page 12 and Row 446-473, Page 13.
- There were no information about statistical data analysis.
Response: Thank you for this suggestion. The data in the text are taken from the subject research data, and in 3.3. Variable Description, we describe the relevant variables and data.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper lacks of a theoretical background. You have to enrich the references of the paper. You have only sixteen citations and are all from authors from China.
Specifically, in the introduction section you have to motivate readers to the scope of the researched based on evidence from literature. You can also make a comparison with similar studies from other countries. Please check also papers from Sustainability journal. Also in the methodology selection you have to justify why you have chosen these steps?
Finally in conclusion section you have to highlight the unique contribution of your research some limitations and future research challenges.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2,
Thank you for your careful review of our manuscript. Based on your recommendation, we have addressed all of the reviewers’ concerns and comments and are pleased to submit our revised manuscript, entitled “Does Farmland Transfer Contribute to Reduction of Chemical Fertilizer Use? Evidence from Heilongjiang Province, China” to Journal of Sustainability. All changes to our manuscript have been highlighted using red text.
The modifications have been explained point-by-point in our response to the reviewers’ comments. If you have further suggestions for this paper, please let us know, and we will carefully revise it further.
We thank you for your timely consideration of this manuscript.
Sincerely,
Cui Ningbo
Our point-by-point responses are as follows.
- The paper lacks of a theoretical background. You have to enrich the references of the paper. You have only sixteen citations and are all from authors from China.
Response: Thank you very much for your suggestions. We have revised the manuscript to include recent developments in relevant research outside China, and now the manuscript has 45 references, please see the text in red and references for details.
- Specifically, in the introduction section you have to motivate readers to the scope of the researched based on evidence from literature. You can also make a comparison with similar studies from other countries. Please check also papers from Sustainability journal. Also in the methodology selection you have to justify why you have chosen these steps?
Response: Thank you very much for this comment. We have revised the manuscript by combing and analyzing similar studies in the introduction section and adding weak points in the current study, Meanwhile, we have updated and added relevant studies and compared the findings with the type study in the discussion in section 5. For the choice of methods, we have added relevant notes, please see Row 202-206; 227-228, Page 5 and Row 229-235, Page 6.
- Finally in conclusion section you have to highlight the unique contribution of your research some limitations and future research challenges.
Response: Thank you for this reminder. We have revised the manuscript to highlight the research contributions of this paper and to add current research limitations and future challenges, in section 5, please see Row 453-473, Page 13.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear editor,
With taking into account the authors revision, I recommend this paper can be accepted in your esteemed journal.
Reviewer 2 Report
ok
