Twenty-Year Research on Out-of-School Education in China from a Sustainability Development Perspective

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Although this paper deals with an interesting topic about out-of-school education in China several issues need to be addressed before performing a more in-depth analysis:

 1.    The context needs further clarification for the international reader. The context and method/s explained in lines 181-191 remain unclear. Which ‘project resources’? Which reaching and research activities?

 2.    Some claims are not fully proven. The authors should include some references to support their statements, for example ‘Related literatures emerged in 2003, and the number of literatures showed an upward 219 trend, reaching the maximum in 2006, and then the number of literatures began to decline. The research focus began to turn to Children's Palace. The research on "Children's Palace" was highlighted in 2006-2016, and the early children's palace mainly served primary school students’ (219-22). 

 3.    Similarly  ‘Although many studies put forward the integration inside and outside the school, the basis, path and validity of the integration have not been elaborated in detail.’ (314-316). Many studies? Which ones?

 4.    Some statements make no sense, they require further clarification, for example ‘In the practice of integration of in-school education and out-of-school education, out-of-school education is developing.’ (317-318). What does ‘out-of-school education is developing’ mean in this sentence?

  5.    The authors should also explain the limitations of their research, particularly regarding their limitations.

 6.    The paper requires language editing. Some examples provided below:

-Avoid using contractions in formal English: ‘the problem that institutions can't achieve the same’ (134)

-Avoid repeating the same words ‘it is necessary to empower and empower …’ (161)

Author Response

Thanks for your comments. The response to comments is attached for your review. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a review of what research has taken place in china about out-of-school education.

The basic premise for the study is adequate, but the description of the terms and labels used would be unfamiliar to an international audience. 

I recommend a section be added that describes each term used so those unfamiliar with China's educational practices and terminology would understand. For example, What is out-of-school education? What would be the equivalent research term outside of China. Many of the specific categories of research were also unclear. For example, what is "children's palace" research? What is a "children's palace" as an educational concept, and how does this differ from "Youth Palace" research? 

On this point you state on Line 15 "The hot spots in the weakening trend are leisure education and children's palace, while the research frontiers in the increasing trend are quality education, children's palace, and research travel."

You have children's palace as both a weakening trend and an increasing trend.

In addition, Figure 1 was not very informative given the translation issues and the lack of clear centroids. 

Table 1 was not very clear. I think it showed when the research topics were prominent but I was not sure. Also, there was a problem with the strength statistic for Youth Palace. 

Author Response

Thanks for your comment. The response to comments is attached for your review. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear author/s

Thanks for considering my recommendations.