Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Chemical Properties for Land Reclamation Purposes in the Toshka Area, EGYPT

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Line 4: Improve the language of the sentence.

Line 7-10: Provide the reference for the source of data or cite some related studies to support your work.

Line 8: Check for the spelling error

Line 11: Check for grammatical and punctuation error. (deciding)

Line 12-14: Improve the language of the sentence.

Check for the formula error. (NH4)

3.2.1:  Crosscheck for the units. (Cmol(+)kg−1)

Table 4: Recheck the units of CEC wherever necessary and make sure same units should be used throwout the manuscript. (Cmol kg−1)

Table 7: Resolve the typological error in the chemical formulas wherever required. (SO4−)

 

Author Response

Sustainability - MDPI

Manuscript ID: Sustainability-2039283

Manuscript Title:  "Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Chemical Properties for Land Reclamation and Cultivation Purpose in the Toshka Area, EGYPT. A case Study"

=====================================================================

Dear Reviewer NO 1.

         Thank you for your efforts and I’d like also to thank very much the reviewers for their valuable comments. Where I am very happy that our manuscript was satisfied with you, and I have the great honor to publish in your valuable journal. We have corrected the manuscript based on the comments of reviewers, and the corrections made in the text in red color, and are outlined step by step as follows:

Review Report Form

Open Review
(  )	I would not like to sign my review report
(x)	I would like to sign my review report
English language and style
(  )	Extensive editing of English language and style required
(x)	Moderate English changes required
(  )	English language and style are fine/minor spell check required
(  )	I don't feel qualified to judge about the English language and style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	Yes	Can be improved	Must be improved	Not applicable
Is the content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background and empirical research (if applicable) on the topic?		(x)
Are all the cited references relevant to the research		(x)
Are the research design, questions, hypotheses and methods clearly stated?		(x)
Are the arguments and discussion of findings coherent, balanced and compelling?		(x)
Foe empirical research, are the results clearly presented		(x)
Is the article adequately referenced?		(x)
Are the conclusions thoroughly supported by the results presented in the article or referenced in secondary literature?		(x)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

• Line 4: Improve the language of the sentence.

Re. Edited if you meant the line 4 of the abstract.

• Line 7-10: Provide the reference for the source of data or cite some related studies to support your work.

Re. Added as shown in red color (Sultana et al.) [4]

• Line 8: Check for the spelling error.

Re. Done.

• Line 11: Check for grammatical and punctuation error. (deciding)

Re. Done.

• Line 12-14: Improve the language of the sentence.

Re. Done.

• Check for the formula error. (NH4).

Re. Done.  

• 2.1:  Crosscheck for the units. (Cmol(+)kg−1)

Re. Done

• Table 4: Recheck the units of CEC wherever necessary and make sure same units should be used throw out the manuscript. (Cmol kg^−1).

Re. Done.

• Table 7: Resolve the typological error in the chemical formulas wherever required. (SO4−).

Re. Done.

 

  Many thanks to Reviewer 1 for his valuable comments

Ahmed A. M. Awad (Corresponding author)

November 16, 2022 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an interesting article, but you may improve this article to publish in this journal. Otherwise, I have a lot of recommendations to increase the quality of your paper. Be careful with the writing and mistakes.

There are is a keyword repeated in the article title. The keyword is “Toshka area”. In order to increase the visibility of your paper I recommend changing this keyword. If you change it by other keyword, you will increase the probability that your paper could be found by future readers when they look for your paper in some databases like Scopus for example. If you repeat the same words in the article title and in keywords, less people could find your work. So, you must think about the visibility of your research. For example, when you look for a specific word normally in the same box you look for “Article title, Abstract and Keywords” at the same time, so, if you have different ones in all of them, obviously the visibility of your manuscript will increase.

When you write an acronym, you must write in capitals the letters that you use to build the acronym. This is a very common tiny mistake in your manuscript. Please, fix it in your whole paper, look for this mistake and fix it. For example, in the abstract you must write “Soil Chemical Properties” instead of “soil chemical properties” just before “(SCPs)”.

In the abstract in the fourth line you must add the word “latitude”. As well, in the fifth line you must write the letter “E” because you do not know if it is west or east.

Another very common mistake in the whole paper is when you write a reference and avoid the researcher changing it by a number. I think this is very confuse for the reader. For example, in the seventh line of the first paragraph of the Introduction you must write “According to Sultana et al. [4]…” instead of “According to [4]…”. I insist that this is a very common mistake in the whole manuscript. So you must find all the mistake and fix all of them in order to publish in this journal.

You must change as well acres by “km²” which is a more common unit.

In the second paragraph of the Introduction when you write the density of the persons you must change by another unit. The density is the number of persons by a surface in km², not linear kilometers. So the right unit is “persons∙km^-²” instead of “persons∙km^-1”.

In the third paragraph of the Introduction in the fifth line just after the word “conditions” there is a point and just after that a word that is not in capitals. I think that you must rephrase the sentence in order to give sense to the idea.

In the 24th line of the third paragraph there is a grammatical mistake, you must write “there are several methods” instead of “there are a several methods”.

In the second line of Material and Methods you must write “Geographically” instead of “Geologically”.

In Matherial and Methods if you look at the map you can see that the coordinates are not accurate, please, use seconds to locate better the studied area.

At the end of Figure 1 you must write a point.

In 2.2 you must write the Datum used for the GPS.

In the fifth line of the second paragraph of 3.3 you must write “100 mL” instead of “100 ml”.

In the same paragraph you must use short hyphen for carbonates. Please, fix this mistake in  the whole paper.

In Materials and Methods the point 3.3 must be changed by 2.3 because Materials and Methods is the point 2.

In the second paragraph of Results you must use the same sensibility for all the units, with two decimal numbers, not three or only one. So, “17.340” must be changed by “17.34”.

In the second paragraph when you write “(7.76 vs 725)” is obviously a mistake, you must write “(7.76 vs 7.25)” because you have forgotten the point after the number 7 in the second number.

In the third paragraph of the point 3.2.1. you must delete the brackets. This is a very common mistake in the whole paper, please, fix it.

In the same paragraph you must write “dS∙m^-1” instead of “dSm^-1”.  Please, fix this mistake in the whole paper.

In the third line of the first paragraph of the point 3.2.3. you must write “mg∙kg^-1” instead of “mgkg^-1”. Please, fix this mistake in the whole paper.

In the fifth line of the second paragraph of the point 3.2.3. you must delete a space between “depths” and “of”.

In the seventh line of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvN” instead of “AN”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

In the seventh line of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvP” instead of “AP”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

 

In the first paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvFe” instead of “AFe”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

In the first paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvCu” instead of “Acu”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

In the third paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “ECe” instead of “Ece”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole paper.

In the second line of the fifth paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvZn” instead of “Azn”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole article.

In the third line of the fifth paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvMn” instead of “Amn”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole article.

Otherwise, the authors adequately developed the Introduction, presenting the problems.

The methods are adequate.

The Discussion is well developed, and the data presented are correctly compared with other papers.

The authors are to be congratulated for the results obtained in this article.

Author Response

Sustainability - MDPI

Manuscript ID: Sustainability-2039283

Manuscript Title:  "Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Chemical Properties for Land Reclamation and Cultivation Purpose in the Toshka Area, EGYPT. A case Study"

=====================================================================

Dear Reviewer NO 2.

         Thank you for your efforts and I’d like also to thank very much the reviewers for their valuable comments. Where I am very happy that our manuscript was satisfied with you, and I have the great honor to publish in your valuable journal. We have corrected the manuscript based on the comments of reviewers, and the corrections made in the text in red color, and are outlined step by step as follows:

Review Report Form

Open Review
(x)	I would not like to sign my review report
(  )	I would like to sign my review report
English language and style
(  )	Extensive editing of English language and style required
(  )	Moderate English changes required
(x)	English language and style are fine/minor spell check required
(  )	I don't feel qualified to judge about the English language and style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	Yes	Can be improved	Must be improved	Not applicable
Is the content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background and empirical research (if applicable) on the topic?	(x)
Are all the cited references relevant to the research	(x)
Are the research design, questions, hypotheses and methods clearly stated?	(x)
Are the arguments and discussion of findings coherent, balanced and compelling?	(x)
Foe empirical research, are the results clearly presented		(x)
Is the article adequately referenced?	(x)
Are the conclusions thoroughly supported by the results presented in the article or referenced in secondary literature?	(x)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an interesting article, but you may improve this article to publish in this journal. Otherwise, I have a lot of recommendations to increase the quality of your paper. Be careful with the writing and mistakes.

• There are is a keyword repeated in the article title. The keyword is “Toshka area”. In order to increase the visibility of your paper I recommend changing this keyword. If you change it by other keyword, you will increase the probability that your paper could be found by future readers when they look for your paper in some databases like Scopus for example. If you repeat the same words in the article title and in keywords, less people could find your work. So, you must think about the visibility of your research. For example, when you look for a specific word normally in the same box you look for “Article title, Abstract and Keywords” at the same time, so, if you have different ones in all of them, obviously the visibility of your manuscript will increase.

Re. A very respectful point of view, so I made some modifications to both the title and the opening words, as shown in red. I hope you will be satisfied.

• When you write an acronym, you must write in capitals the letters that you use to build the acronym. This is a very common tiny mistake in your manuscript. Please, fix it in your whole paper, look for this mistake and fix it. For example, in the abstract you must write “Soil Chemical Properties” instead of “soil chemical properties” just before “(SCPs).

Re. All acronyms were reviewed and written as indicated in the comment, as mentioned in red color in the whole manuscript.

• In the abstract in the fourth line you must add the word “latitude”. As well, in the fifth line you must write the letter “E” because you do not know if it is west or east.

Re. Done

• Another very common mistake in the whole paper is when you write a reference and avoid the researcher changing it by a number. I think this is very confuse for the reader. For example, in the seventh line of the first paragraph of the Introduction you must write “According to Sultana et al. [4]…” instead of “According to [4]…”. I insist that this is a very common mistake in the whole manuscript. So you must find all the mistake and fix all of them in order to publish in this journal.

Re. done for some references.

• You must change as well acres by “km²” which is a more common unit.

Re. The sentence has been paraphrased again, as Egypt currently has three agricultural investment projects, namely, the Toshka project, the East Al-Owainat project, and the 1.5 million acres project, not as previously described. But the area unit has been modified to become “hectares” instead of “acres”.

• In the second paragraph of the Introduction when you write the density of the persons you must change by another unit. The density is the number of persons by a surface in km², not linear kilometers. So the right unit is “persons∙km^-²” instead of “persons∙km^-1”

Re. Done

• In the third paragraph of the Introduction in the fifth line just after the word “conditions” there is a point and just after that a word that is not in capitals. I think that you must rephrase the sentence in order to give sense to the idea.

Re. Done

• In the 24^th line of the third paragraph there is a grammatical mistake, you must write “there are several methods” instead of “there are a several methods”

Re. Done.

• In the second line of Material and Methods you must write “Geographically” instead of “Geologically”

Re. Done.

• In Material and Methods if you look at the map you can see that the coordinates are not accurate, please, use seconds to locate better the studied area.

Re. An unintended error has been corrected.

• At the end of Figure 1 you must write a point.

Re. Done.

• In 2.2 you must write the Datum used for the GPS.

Re. Done as shown in red color.

• In the fifth line of the second paragraph of 3.3 you must write “100 mL” instead of “100 ml”.

Re. Done.

• In the same paragraph you must use short hyphen for carbonates. Please, fix this mistake in  the whole paper.

Re. Done.

• In Materials and Methods the point 3.3 must be changed by 2.3 because Materials and Methods is the point 2.

Re. Done.

• In the second paragraph of Results you must use the same sensibility for all the units, with two decimal numbers, not three or only one. So, “17.340” must be changed by “17.34”.

Re. Done.

• In the second paragraph when you write “(7.76 vs 725)” is obviously a mistake, you must write “(7.76 vs 7.25)” because you have forgotten the point after the number 7 in the second number.

Re. Done.

• In the third paragraph of the point 3.2.1. you must delete the brackets. This is a very common mistake in the whole paper, please, fix it.

Re. Done.

• In the same paragraph you must write “dS∙m^-1” instead of “dSm^-1”.  Please, fix this mistake in the whole paper.

Re. Edited as described in the commentary in the whole manuscript and marked in red color.

• In the third line of the first paragraph of the point 3.2.3. you must write “mg∙kg^-1” instead of “mgkg^-1”. Please, fix this mistake in the whole paper.

Re. Done.

• In the fifth line of the second paragraph of the point 3.2.3. you must delete a space between “depths” and “of”.

Re. done.

• In the seventh line of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvN” instead of “AN”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

Re. Done.

• In the seventh line of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvP” instead of “AP”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

Re. Done.

• In the first paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvFe” instead of “AFe”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

Re. Done.

• In the first paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvCu” instead of “Acu”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole manuscript.

Re. Done.

• In the third paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “ECe” instead of “Ece”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole paper.

Re. Done.

• In the second line of the fifth paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvZn” instead of “Azn”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole article.

Re. Done.

• In the third line of the fifth paragraph of the point 3.2.4. you must write “AvMn” instead of “Amn”. Please, fix this very common mistake in the whole article.

Re. Done.

• Otherwise, the authors adequately developed the Introduction, presenting the problems.

Thank you very much …

The methods are adequate.

• The Discussion is well developed, and the data presented are correctly compared with other papers.

Re. Your opinion is an honor for me.

The authors are to be congratulated for the results obtained in this article.

 

  Many thanks to Reviewer 2 for his valuable comments

Ahmed A. M. Awad (Corresponding author)

November 15, 2022 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf