Identifying Critical Success Factors of an Emergency Information Response System Based on the Similar-DEMATEL Method

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1) Emergency information response system should be explained in more detail.

2) A graphical explanation for the results could be acceptable.

3) A flowchart about the process could be added.

4) All equations could be addressed in the text.

The language of this paper is fine. There are only a few minor typos or grammar errors. 

Author Response

(1)Emergency information response system should be explained in more detail.

In line 38-41

The emergency information response system (EIRS) is a system that can quickly and efficiently collect and analyze information by use various intelligence technologies, helping organizations make quick and effective responses to emergencies，which played an important role in the control of emergencies in China.

(2)A graphical explanation for the results could be acceptable.

Thank you for the suggestion from the review. Sorry, it is maybe difficult to express the graphical explanation for us.

(3) A flowchart about the process could be added.

We add the flowchart in line 283-286

(4) All equations could be addressed in the text.

Thank you for the suggestion from the review, but we thought that STEP has been used in Part 5.1, which is consistent with STEP in Part 4.

Reviewer 2 Report

The Similar DEMATEL method proposed in the paper mainly has three problems: firstly, there is a lack of deep comparison with relevant methods, which makes it difficult to reflect the superiority of its method. Secondly, the rigor and readability of the argument are poor. Thirdly, the innovation is obvious. For example, the paper did not truly solve the issue of Hybrid DEMATEL, but only preliminarily solved a simple problem of point estimation and interval estimation, which results in a loss of generality. For another instance, regarding the issue of inference of missing values, there are currently similar results from DEMATEL research, and the author has not cited them. Fourthly, academic standardization is poor. In addition, the quality of literature review completion is also poor, which does not reflect the latest research progress on DEMATEL. The author's discussion of the actual EIRS problem is also insufficient.

In this paper, the quality of English is very poor. Such as, the title of this paper has obvious grammar errors.

Author Response

We revised the title, which is “Identifying Critical Success Factors of Emergency Information Response System based on Similar-DEMATEL method”.

(1)there is a lack of deep comparison with relevant methods, which makes it difficult to reflect the superiority of its method.

In line 354. We add 5.2 Comparison with the results of the mean input method .And made deep comparison with the mean method with this method. It is pointed out that the missing evaluation values in this method are rounded to integers, while the mean method is a decimal.

 In lin 381-383 we revise The imputation values of this method are integer or interval integer, while values of mean imputation method is a decimal.

 (2) the rigor and readability of the argument are poor.

We have revised some expressions.

(3)regarding the issue of inference of missing values, there are currently similar results from DEMATEL research, and the author has not cited them

We check the database “Web of Science”, the key words is ”DEMATEL imputation” ,found that there was a literature “Solving incomplete fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix using fuzzy DEMATEL”. In that literature, a fuzzy DEMATEL based method of estimating incomplete values in fuzzy AHP is proposed. It did not impute the missing values of DEMATEL method. Perhaps we were negligent in our search. Could the reviewer please remind us so that we can add it? Thanks.

(4) academic standardization is poor. In addition, the quality of literature review completion is also poor, which does not reflect the latest research progress on DEMATEL. The author's discussion of the actual EIRS problem is also insufficient.

In Line 62-76。We revise EIRS

Many scholars have conducted research on EIRS, and their views are as follows. Excellent EIRS can achieve a series of goals in emergency management by exploring the essence of emergency management[1]. Therefore, when facing emergency problems, government need to have a highly unified information system and a high degree of organizational flexibility. Therefore, in order to better promote the development of EIRS, many countries have conducted in-depth research on key technologies such as information integration mechanisms and information security of emergency platforms[2-5], improving their financial support capabilities including personnel costs, equipment costs, management costs, equipment consumption and maintenance costs, thereby greatly improving their security capabilities when facing emergency problems[6]. The widespread use of devices such as mobile phones and robots has made it easier to collect more and more accurate emergency information[7, 8]. The full application of IT applications has also improved the ability to information mining capability[9], further unleashing organizational flexibility[10, 11], and optimizing the government's emergency management decision-making ability.

In line 126-1230.We add commit in the following.

Some scholars have conducted beneficial explorations in the assessment scale, expanding it into a diverse set of language terms such as Pythagorean, Triangular fuzzy numbers, intuitionistic fuzzy numbers[12-15]. Other scholars have expanded the scope of assessment scales, with the number of assessment scales even exceeding 9.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

From the abstract and title, I couldn’t quite say what this article was about, but I agreed to review it because of the topic. My review here is not especially positive, but I think there is an opportunity for the authors in the revision. At present I would not publish this paper in this journal, and below are some required revisions:

 

- title. The title doesn’t point to a clear research QUESTION or measurement that the method will enable. I would make the title shorter (<9 words), and focus on the question.

- abstract. The authors told us what they DID, but it’s not clear to me what they discovered. Rather than focusing this entire paper on the methodology, they would do better to focus on what new thing they discovered, and THEN to show us the new method they used.

- missing information. I couldn’t quite tell, but does the authors’ method use a maximum entropy (i.e., minimum assumption) model, or does the model start with assumptions that get included?

- English. It might be useful to have a native English speaker review the language. For example, on p 14, “Based on the above analysis, suggests are given to improve the capability of EIRS.” It should be suggestions I think? There were a few of these, not enough to take away from the article, but enough to reduce reader confidence.

 

I would be willing to re-review if the authors make corrections.

- English. It might be useful to have a native English speaker review the language. For example, on p 14, “Based on the above analysis, suggests are given to improve the capability of EIRS.” It should be suggestions I think? There were a few of these, not enough to take away from the article, but enough to reduce reader confidence.

Author Response

- title. The title doesn’t point to a clear research QUESTION or measurement that the method will enable. I would make the title shorter (<9 words), and focus on the question.

  We revised the title, which is “Identifying Critical Success Factors of Emergency Information Response System based on Similar-DEMATEL method”.

- abstract. The authors told us what they DID, but it’s not clear to me what they discovered. Rather than focusing this entire paper on the methodology, they would do better to focus on what new thing they discovered, and THEN to show us the new method they used.

In line 8-31

Emergency information response system (EIRS) is a system that utilizes various intelligence technologies to effectively handle various emergencies and provide decision support for decision-makers. As critical success factors (CSFs) in EIRS play an important role in emergency management, it is necessary to study its CSFs of EIRS. Most previous studies applied the Decision Experiment and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method with complete evaluation information to identify CSFs. Due to the complexity of the decision-making environment when identifying CSFs of EIRS, decision-makers sometimes cannot provide complete evaluation information during the decision-making process. To fill this gap, this paper provided a Similar-DEMATEL method to impute the missing values and to identify CSFs of EIRS, which may avoid the dilemma of decision distortion and make decision-making results more accurate. It is found that the factors of Information mining capability, Equipment support capability, Monitoring and early warning capability, Organization participation capability are the CSFs in EIRS. Our proposed method is different from the previous research such as mean imputation method to impute the missing values. We compared the difference between the proposed method and the mean imputation method, and gave the advantages of the proposed method. Our method focuses more on uncertain decision-making environments, which is conducive to improving the efficiency of EIRS in emergency management, and therefore it is more widely adopted.

-  missing information. I couldn’t quite tell, but does the authors’ method use a maximum entropy (i.e., minimum assumption) model, or does the model start with assumptions that get included?

Thank you for the suggestion from the review. We provided a new method to solve the missing values of DMEATEL.it is not a maximum entropy model.

- English. It might be useful to have a native English speaker review the language. For example, on p 14, “Based on the above analysis, suggests are given to improve the capability of EIRS.” It should be suggestions I think? There were a few of these, not enough to take away from the article, but enough to reduce reader confidence.

Thank you for the suggestion from the review. We have deleted it. And in line 394—395 we add So we propose the following suggestions.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

 This article proposes the DEMATEL method for calculating missing values and identification, which can avoid the dilemma of distorting decisions and make the results of decision-making more accurate. Due to the complexity of the decision-making environment, decision makers sometimes cannot provide complete evaluation information in the decision-making process. To fill this gap the article is written. In previous studies, such a method as an unstructured interview, a questionnaire was used to study potential and important factors that did not allow for adequate identification of CSF from EIR due to the incomplete knowledge structure of decision makers (DMS) and different levels of education.  Authors proposed a similar DEMATEL method with hybrid evaluation scales of distinct values and interval values for CSF EIR identification in decision-making environments. They applied this new method to identify CSF EIR, where four factors out were identified as CSF and six factors were identified as non-CSF. The author suggested that in a similar situation, experts who adhere to the same idea have the same pairwise comparison of two factors. The decision process is presented. The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments presented and they address the main question posed. The references are appropriate. The figures and tables are made in high quality. 

But I have two technical remarks. 1. Some formulas in the text are located apper than the main line of the text. 2. Formula (2) can be replaced to the right.

Author Response

1. Some formulas in the text are located apper than the main line of the text. 2. Formula (2) can be replaced to the right.

Thank you. We have revised these.

Reviewer 5 Report

The authors propose Similar-DEMATEL method to impute the missing values and to identify CSFs of EIRS, which may avoid the dilemma of decision distortion and make decision-making results more accurate. The article is very well organized. I recommend the authors to state the limitation of their study and plans for future work in the field.

A round of proofread is recommended

Author Response

In line 458-462,we add

However, the limitation of this study is to identify CSFS through expert preferences. Future research can also specify the relationship between CSFs through methods such as structural equation models or interpretive structural models.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 6 Report

Regarding the content, I do not have any changes to recommend, it makes a good literary review to support the relevance of the problem to be studied and a good structuring of the content, it uses the correct methodology for this type of study and it is a consistent and well-detailed methodology to give significance to the results they show, makes a good discussion of the results with respect to the studies carried out previously, and marks the conclusion obtained well.

Although I advise looking at these things:

Never two sections without a paragraph of text in between. You should put a couple of lines describing/naming the subsections you are going to deal with within that section. You must correct this between sections 2-2.1 and 3-3.1.

In section “7. Conclusion", it is necessary to develop a deeper analysis of the conclusions, implications and limitations of the study. In addition to the possible future lines of research opened with this research.

Before the ‘References’ section, don’t forget to add the “Funding” and “Conflicts of Interest” sections. Look at this in the template.

And the references in the “References” section must follow the model set by the journal. You must correct the errors that exist. Look at this in the template.

Author Response

Never two sections without a paragraph of text in between. You should put a couple of lines describing/naming the subsections you are going to deal with within that section. You must correct this between sections 2-2.1 and 3-3.1.

In line 107-108.we add There are two main types of literature related to this article, one is fuzzy DEMATEL, and the other is missing values.

In line 170-171. We add To better lay the foundation for identifying the CSFs of EIRS, we must obtain the influencing factors of EIRS and further provide some symbols.

In section “7. Conclusion", it is necessary to develop a deeper analysis of the conclusions, implications and limitations of the study. In addition to the possible future lines of research opened with this research..

In line 458-462,we add

However, the limitation of this study is to identify CSFS through expert preferences. Future research can also specify the relationship between CSFs through methods such as structural equation models or interpretive structural models.

In line 454-456,we add

However, the limitation of this study is to identify CSFS through expert preferences. Future research can also specify the relationship between CSFs through methods such as structural equation models or interpretive structural models.

Before the ‘References’ section, don’t forget to add the “Funding” and “Conflicts of Interest” sections. Look at this in the template.

And the references in the “References” section must follow the model set by the journal. You must correct the errors that exist. Look at this in the template.

Thank you for the suggestion from the review. We have revised it.

Reviewer 7 Report

In this paper, the authors develop a Similar-DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method for imputing missing values ​​and identifying CSFs of EIRS. The authors believe that this can lead to the avoidance of decision bias and make decision-making results more accurate.

1. I consider it necessary to detail the method of identification of the 10 factors used (section 3.1).

2. Section 4 - It is not clear if the proposed model is an established model or which of the 12 specific steps represents the novelty of the model.

3. In some cases, the acronym EIRS has been transformed into ERIS. Must be corrected.

4. In the Authorship contribution statement, is mentioned the third author (Chuanfeng Huang: Writing – editing). Why?

The paper has a good structure and a rich list of references.

Author Response

1. I consider it necessary to detail the method of identification of the 10 factors used (section 3.1).

In the 3.1 we revise “We have provided a total of 13 factors, and then, we selected the top 10 factors in the ranking through expert scoring”.

2. Section 4 - It is not clear if the proposed model is an established model or which of the 12 specific steps represents the novelty of the model.

We have already stated in the abstract and introduction.

In the abstract, decision-makers sometimes cannot provide complete evaluation information during the decision-making process. To fill this gap, this paper provided a Similar-DEMATEL method to impute the missing values and to identify CSFs of EIRS.

In the introduction, However, DMs may provide hybrid evaluation values and the evaluation values may contain some missing values. we proposed a Similar-DEMATEL method with hybrid assessment scales of crisp value and interval value to identify CSFs of EIRS in the decision environments containing missing values.

3. In some cases, the acronym EIRS has been transformed into ERIS. Must be corrected.

Thank you for the suggestion from the review. We have revised these.

4. In the Authorship contribution statement, is mentioned the third author (Chuanfeng Huang: Writing – editing). Why?

Thank you for the suggestion from the review. We have revised these.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Although the revised version of the paper has been modified to some extent according to relevant suggestions, the reviewers believe that there are still obvious shortcomings in the paper. Firstly, the academic innovation of Similar-DEMATEL is poor, the quality of modifications is low, and there is insufficient tracking of relevant literature. Secondly, the comparison of methods is too far fetched, which is difficult to convince, and unable to demonstrate substantive methodological advantages. Thirdly, the literature review is not comprehensive. Fourthly, the practicality and operability of the proposed method are poor.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Firstly, the academic innovation of Similar-DEMATEL is poor, the quality of modifications is low, and there is insufficient tracking of relevant literature. Secondly, the comparison of methods is too far fetched, which is difficult to convince, and unable to demonstrate substantive methodological advantages. Thirdly, the literature review is not comprehensive. Fourthly, the practicality and operability of the proposed method are poor.

In line 71-82 we add

To address these limitations, a novel Similar-DEMATEL method with hybrid assessment scales of crisp value and interval value was proposed to identify CSFs of EIRS in the decision environments containing missing values.

The main contributions of this study are as follows:

(1) A total of 10 factors of EIRS, which are utilized to explore the causal relationships between factors, are summarized from existing literature.

(2) A matrix with missing values for DEMATEL was constructed, and compensates for missing values through similarity degree.

(3) CSFs of EIRS were identified by the novel method. Four factors were identified as CSFs and six factors were identified as non-CSFs. Based on the results, suggestions were proposed in the discussion, which would enhance the efficiency of governmental emergency management.

In line 107-132

In recent years, the extended application of DEMATEL has become increasingly widespread.One extension of DEMATEL is to apply DEMATEL with other methods to propose hybrid MADM framework. Tadić (2014) integrated DEMATEL, ANP, VIKOR  for selecting the CL concept, which is successfully performed in this paper for the City of Belgrade[30]. Du(2013) develop the Kano-DEMATEL-TOPSIS method and apply it in logistics service supply chain (LSSC) management. The hybrid method can better solve the problem of benefit distribution comprising segmented tasks evaluation and individual risk compensation in LSSC [31].Like many other typical MCDM method, the typical DEMATEL needs DMs to provide assessments against criteria using single assessment scale. Thus, the other extension of DEMATEL is to modify the assessment scale. One way of modification of the assessment scale is to expand it into a diverse set of language terms such as pythagorean, triangular fuzzy numbers, intuitionistic fuzzy numbers etc. [32-35].The other way of modification of the assessment scale is to expand the scope of assessment scales. For example, the literature[36] thought the scope of assessment scales can be any natural number.

Although DEMATEL is widely used, the application of this effective structural modeling tool to evaluate EIRS needs to be explored[37]. Considering single assessment scale cannot express human thinking, it needs two or above kinds of assessment scales for DEMATEL method in the identifying the CSFs of EIRS. However, the DEMATEL method using hybrid evaluation assessments is still in its early stages. Jin et cl.(2020) put forward an hybrid DEMATEL method with the assessment of real number，the interval number and the triangular fuzzy number to identify the CSFs of emergency supplies support capacity[38]. Jin and Zhang(2023) provided an IFS-IVIFS-DEMATEL method with the assessment of IFS and IVIFS to identify the CSFs [39]. These literatures using hybrid evaluation assessments have played a good role in identifying CSFs. Therefore, Hybrid DEMATEL with two kind of assessment scales will be applied in identifying the CSFs of EIRS.

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a much-improved version of the earlier manuscript. Some of the implicit ideas are now explicit, and organized better. If there were some way of converting the large tables into succinct figures, that would help the readability of the article. I'll leave it to the authors to see if that's possible or not.

Author Response

We have carefully considered that the parts previously represented in tables in steps 11-13 and 5.2 are now represented in text, which is on line 335-348 and line 359-368.

The other parts are still represented in tables.

thanks