Sustainable Development in Gansu Province: Theil Index and Cluster Analysis
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis is a very good topic for publishing in the Sustainability Journal. It needs to be revised to include the following points:
Title: Let's make this title short and sweet: "Sustainable Development in Gansu Province: Theil Index & Cluster Analysis."
Keywords: Put them in alphabetical order.
Introduction: For an introduction, start with a general background or context, then narrow down to a specific gap or problem, and finally state your research aim and scope. You can also include a motivational statement, brief outline of the main sections or arguments of your article at the end of your introduction.
Add a few lines at the end of the introduction: Lastly, the remainder of the paper is organised as follows: In Section 2, Materials and Methods, Section 3 .... Finally, conclude the article with conclusions, recommendations, policy insights, and future work.
Use British or American English throughout the manuscript for consistency.
Figure 1 Align to the Centre. Follow the journal guidelines for its formatting and positioning.
Equations: Provide the reference for all equations.
Tables: Align to the Centre. Follow the journal guidelines for its formatting and positioning.
Results and Discussions
Figure 2 should be bright. Follow the journal guidelines for formatting tables, figures, and equations.
Figure 6 should be bright. Follow the journal guidelines for formatting tables, figures, and equations.
Figure 8 aligns with the centre.
Lines 537 merge with 3 together: results and discussions.
Conclusions, recommendations, policy insights, and future works.
Line 624: References: Add more updated references, at least 50.
Thanks for using updated references. Always follow the journal guidelines for reference styles and citations.
Line 70 Add some more references, such as
- Poudyal, R. COVID-19 impacts on energy systems in Nepal: Implications for SDGs. In Proceedings of the 6th SONEUK Conference, London, UK, 10 July 2021. [Google Scholar]
Line 83 and sustainable energy [ Add reference here] Poudyal, R. (2021). Renewable Energy and Other Strategies for Mitigating the Energy Crisis in Nepal. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58990/Description
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
This is a very good topic for publishing in the Sustainability Journal. It needs to be revised to include the following points:
Title: Let's make this title short and sweet: "Sustainable Development in Gansu Province: Theil Index & Cluster Analysis."
Keywords: Put them in alphabetical order.
Introduction: For an introduction, start with a general background or context, then narrow down to a specific gap or problem, and finally state your research aim and scope. You can also include a motivational statement, brief outline of the main sections or arguments of your article at the end of your introduction.
Add a few lines at the end of the introduction: Lastly, the remainder of the paper is organised as follows: In Section 2, Materials and Methods, Section 3 .... Finally, conclude the article with conclusions, recommendations, policy insights, and future work.
Use British or American English throughout the manuscript for consistency.
Figure 1 Align to the Centre. Follow the journal guidelines for its formatting and positioning.
Equations: Provide the reference for all equations.
Tables: Align to the Centre. Follow the journal guidelines for its formatting and positioning.
Results and Discussions
Figure 2 should be bright. Follow the journal guidelines for formatting tables, figures, and equations.
Figure 6 should be bright. Follow the journal guidelines for formatting tables, figures, and equations.
Figure 8 aligns with the centre.
Lines 537 merge with 3 together: results and discussions.
Conclusions, recommendations, policy insights, and future works.
Line 624: References: Add more updated references, at least 50.
Thanks for using updated references. Always follow the journal guidelines for reference styles and citations.
Line 70 Add some more references, such as
- Poudyal, R. COVID-19 impacts on energy systems in Nepal: Implications for SDGs. In Proceedings of the 6th SONEUK Conference, London, UK, 10 July 2021. [Google Scholar]
Line 83 and sustainable energy [ Add reference here] Poudyal, R. (2021). Renewable Energy and Other Strategies for Mitigating the Energy Crisis in Nepal. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58990/Description
Author Response
Thank you to the reviewer, please see the attachment for the revised comments. Thank you again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis paper selects relevant economic development indicators from 2016 to 2020 for 76 counties in Gansu Province, constructs an evaluation system for assessing their sustainable development potential.
Methods: Theil index, spatial autocorrelation, principal component analysis, and cluster grouping classification.
The authors considered five dimensions line 152 and 235, but only referred four: GDP development level, financial development level, industrial development level, and social development level.
In table 2 have 5 dimensions, include the fiscal development.
The Index evaluation system (table 2), have the 5 dimensions, but the results, discussions and conclusions do not respecify those dimensions.
There must be coherence between bibliographic review, methodology, results, and conclusion. The article must be improved so that there is a logical line.The Acronyms must be introduced the first time (e.g.: GDP, RMB, PCS…).
There is a lot of text without bibliographic references (e.g.: lines 34-47, lines 121-160, 196-199….).
Author Response
Thank you to the reviewer, please see the attachment for the revised comments. Thank you again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article concerns important issues of rural development. As indicated by the Authors of the publication, it should be implemented in accordance with the idea of sustainable development. Taking this into account, I believe that the article fits into the topics presented by the Sustainability.
The research was conducted for 76 counties in Gansu Province, China. The Authors used a methodology for assessing the development of rural areas based on: Theil index, spatial autocorrelation, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis. The methodology was selected correctly and enabled the achievement of the assumed research goals. Targeted development strategies for economically underdeveloped areas were proposed as research conclusions. Considering that a specific study case is being analyzed, I believe that the research results are local, not international. However, they are valuable for developing local strategies.
Please indicate what is new in the research compared to existing publications in this field. This should be clearly indicated in the introduction.
The research results were presented clearly. The conclusions result from the scope of the research conducted. In this section, the Authors should also indicate further research directions.
The article should be formatted according to the journal's guidelines.
Author Response
Thank you to the reviewer, please see the attachment for the revised comments. Thank you again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors The article presents improvements. However, the discussions and conclusions could be improved by specify the 5 dimensions.Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your correction. We have revised and added 3.3.1 to the article 3.3 Discussion section, titled County Development Discussion under Different Dimensions. The original discussion section is as Overall Development Discussion. We have revised it in the article and the revised part is highlighted in cyan color. We hope to get your approval.Attached is a modified version.
Sincerely,
Peng Cao, Haijun Tao
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
