Promoting the Transition to a Circular Economy: A Study about Behaviour, Attitudes, and Knowledge by University Students in Portugal

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors of the paper "Promoting Circular Economy Transition: A Study about Behaviours, Attitudes, and Knowledge by University Students in Portugal" present a relevant topic, namely "the evaluation of behaviors, attitudes and knowledge about the circular economy (CE) by university students", having a primarily applied contribution at a global economic level in the context of climate change and common approaches to new economic models with a direct focus on young generations. However, we would appreciate it if the authors could mention the scientific contribution and the innovative elements resulting from the research from the abstract of the work.

Concepts, bibliographic sources and citations are adequately mentioned within the paper, for example the authors use relevant bibliographic references, but they must be properly reviewed. The authors CE (Almulhim& Abubakar, 2021), as they emphasize that "only a few researchers analyzed the understanding, attitudes and practices of consumers towards". However, from 2021, respectively 2022, more scientific works were published, for which reason we suggest the authors of the work to revise the "Literature review" chapter with some of the works published in 2022, 2023 in the field of reference. Thank you.

The research methodology is simplistically presented, but adequate and in accordance with the theme of the work, the authors use the survey type research method, the applied research tool being the questionnaire structured by the authors. The authors' survey research starts from "scientific sampling and questionnaire design to measure population characteristics with statistical precision" (Kamolson, Sustainability 2023, 15, x FOR REVIEW PART 4 of 21 2007, p.4)". Moreover, the representativeness of the collected data is well argued given the fact that "The questionnaire was created using Google Forms and was available online".

The results of the study are presented both descriptively and centrally in the form of tables, respectively graphs, respecting the academic rigors, and directly oriented to highlight the fact that "students involve more EC behaviors and have positive attitudes", as well as "... can prioritize behaviors that align with their values and goals, such as sustainability and financial responsibility, and choose activities that support their values." The presented results are pragmatically oriented towards applied research, but we suggest the authors of the papers to highlight in a distinct paragraph the innovations and personal scientific contributions developed within the paper and which contribute directly to the specialized scientific literature.

The conclusions are properly presented by the authors of the paper highlighting the fact that "higher education institutions (HEIs) must change their educational approaches to establish a sustainable circular mindset among students". The limitations of the study are adequately presented, but future research with multiplying effects based on the results of the study would be suggested to be more highlighted.

We congratulate the research team for the paper done, and after the additions suggested in the review report, we propose to accept the paper.

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Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

（1）The figures are not standardized, and the size and font are inconsistent.

（2）Lack of necessary main conclusions in the abstract.

（3）What is the difference between behavior (1) and (2) in Table 2.

（4）The survey did not show any differences in professional science in knowledge background.

（5）The calculation method was not specified in the correlation study of survey data.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper aimed to assess behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge about circular economy (CE) by university students. The paper is quite original, it is well written, the data analysis is acceptable. However, there are certain points to clarify:

- Since Data collection from the target audience was made using an online questionnaire, why the study focuses specifically on Portuguese students, why not broaden the study by touching various nationalities especially since the subject can affect all students.

- Data collection from the target audience was made using an online questionnaire, disseminated through social media and e-mail, and 377 valid answers were obtained. on what criteria the responses were considered valid or not.

- Some references are very old dating from 1977 and 1967, I suggest replacing them with more recent references (reference 1 and 2)

- In part 4.2, there are two figures numbered 1 and two figures numbered 2, is there a reason to do this? otherwise check the order of all figures throughout the manuscript

- The shape of the figures must be approximately uniform, comparing figure 2, figure 4, figure 9 and figure 10, it is remarkable that the size of the writing is not at all the same, moreover, these questions in bold in each of the figures, they bear a number which causes some confusion with the different parts of the paper... I recommend to the authors to better organize and present the data as well as to improve the presentation of all the figures..

- Part 5., is not part of section 4 of the results and discussions? why put it as a separate section? I recommend that authors check the distribution of different parts of the manuscript.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

The goal of this paper is to assess behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge about circular economy (CE) by university students since younger and highly skilled generations are one of the major driving forces of a successful CE transformation. The study focuses specifically on Portuguese students. This work is not suitable for sustainability.  After careful review of the manuscript, I regret to inform you that I do not find manuscript’s suitable for sustainability journal because it does not possess a significant enough advance in the sustainable education or sustainability perspective reported to meet the requirements for publication in the journal. I am sorry not to have better news for you, however, thank you for giving me the opportunity to consider your reviewer.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

 

The goal of this paper is to assess behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge about circular economy (CE) by university students since younger and highly skilled generations are one of the major driving forces of a successful CE transformation. The study focuses specifically on Portuguese students. This work is not suitable for sustainability.  After careful review of the manuscript, I regret to inform you that I do not find manuscript’s suitable for sustainability journal because it does not possess a significant enough advance in the sustainable education or sustainability perspective reported to meet the requirements for publication in the journal. I am sorry not to have better news for you, however, thank you for giving me the opportunity to consider your reviewer.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I recommend the publication of this paper .

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Accept in present form