The Impact of Chinese Public Environmental Awareness on Environmental Behavior: An Analysis Based on China National Surveys in 2003, 2010 and 2021
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThank you so much for inviting the manuscript for review about Land-3139397, The manuscript titled “Research on the change of Chinese citizens ' environmental awareness and its impact on environmental behavior: Analysis based on cgss2003, cgss2010 and cgss2021” is exceptionally well-written and presents a thorough exploration of an important topic. The clarity of the writing and the comprehensive methodology of environmental behavior enhance the overall quality of the research, but there are some suggestions for authors below.
1. Suggest to the author, to please revise the title, and link with your manuscript in well
2. Some references have disappeared from lines 65, 66, 75, and 79, please revise them and properly cite them according to journal requirements.
3. The abstract is particularly vague and complicated to understand. I recommend that the main concept is briefly presented, then the aim of the article, the method adopted, and then the main findings. presented as such.
4. Additionally, the discussion part is quite short; if the authors explain more, it will improve the research and provide greater clarity.
5. Implications of Findings and Limitations of Research should be used separately after Conclusions, and also revise Conclusions
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor editing of English language required
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1. The author should provide some quantifiable results in the abstract along with a constructive conclusive statement with policy implications at the end of the abstract.
2. The introduction needs to more clearly establish the gap this study is trying to address.
3. The overall framework diagram of the research should be supplemented in the article, not just the theoretical framework.
4. The main data sources used in the study should be described in detail, especially cgss2003, cgss2010 and cgss2024， Introduce its source, acquisition method, accuracy, and possible errors.
5. The overall environmental awareness assessment nationwide is difficult to demonstrate spatial differences and lacks detailed analysis at different scales.
6. There is not even a figure in the article to show the research results, and the expressive power needs to be strengthened.
7. The article lacks a discussion section. Based on the response to scientific problem-solving, in-depth discussions should be conducted on important research findings, compared with other related studies, and the shortcomings of this study should be pointed out.
8. It is more appropriate to submit to economic or management journals.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageModerate editing of English language is required.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis manuscript studied the changes in environmental awareness among China citizens over the past 20 years and explored the impact of environmental awareness on environmental behavior. The reviewer considers this to be a meaningful study. However, there are still some problems in the manuscript. The specific comments are as follows:
1.Line65: Authors need to check the citation formatting of references, with multiple errors throughout the paper.
2. Line65 "But its level ultimately depended..."
What does “its” refer to? The reviewer could not understand the logical relationship between “But its level ultimately depended on the ’doing‘” and “For example, Hong put forward that environmental awareness included ecological knowledge, basic environmental values, attitude to participate in environmental protection, and environmental protection behavior[9]”.
3.Lines 63-64 "There were two views on the definition of environmental awareness in the existing literature."
Lines 69-70 "Another view was to regard environmental behavior as a variable independent of environmental awareness, that was..."
The first sentence of this paragraph emphasized two views on environmental awareness. Why does the subject of the second view change to environmental behavior?
4.Lines 77-79 " From the perspective of “cognition determines behavior”, some scholars have analyzed the extent to which environmental awareness could affect individual environmental behavior"
It is recommended that the authors should provide more research on environmental awareness, rather than simply stating that existing research is rich. One reference is clearly insufficient to adequately describe the current findings.
5.Lines 91-93 "And using MV-probit model, Poisson model and mediated effects model to explore the correlation between different environmental behavior and the impact of environmental awareness on environmental behavior."
It is recommended that the authors should verify the logical sequence of their research, whether to first analyze the impact of environmental awareness on environmental behavior or to analyze the correlation between different environmental behaviors.
6.Lines 101-102 " It includes five dimensions: environmental values, environmental knowledge, environmental responsibility, environmental concern and environmental capacity [18,19]."
It is recommended that the authors add a specific definition of environmental capacity.
7.Lines 119-129 "Willingness determines preference, and then determines individual decision-making and behavior [29]... In summary, this paper proposed the following research hypothesis."
It is recommended that the authors should explain the relationship between willingness and environmental awareness. The reviewer thought that this passage only expresses that willingness can have an impact on environmental behaviour. Based on the hypothesis of H1, it seems that the passage should focus on the positive impact on environmental behavior.
8.Linescapable132-145 “Environmental behavior includes two dimensions: private environmental behavior and public environmental behavior... proposed the following research hypothesis. ”
Similarly, the reviewer did not understand the authors' argument for environmental willingness as a mediating role. The authors are advised to adjust the logic.
9.Line 147 "H3: There is a correlation between private environmental behavior and public environmental behavior. "
It is recommended that the authors add the rationale for the H3 hypothesis.
10.Line 160 "Figure1. Theory analysis framework"
The reviewer considered that Figure 1 does not clearly express the hypothesis of this study. It is recommended that the authors provide a clearer representation of Figure 1, for example, by labelling correlations in the arrows.
11.Line 162 "3.1research area and date source"
It is recommended that authors should state the study area directly, if it is China.
12.Lines167-168 "Of the 13 completed surveys, 5 dealt with individual environmental awareness and behavior."
The reviewer may have missed some information. What does “13 completed surveys” mean?
13.Lines 171-173 "The CGSS survey was conducted among Chinese citizens over 17 years of age, and it covered 25 provinces in 2003 and 31 provinces in 2010 and 2021. The sample sizes were 5048, 3669 and 2739 respectively."
The authors need to clarify whether the differences in samples between different years will affect the results.
14.Line 241 "where is y^* the latent variable..."
The authors need to check the characters in the text to ensure they are consistent with those in the formulas.
15.Lines 432-500 "5.Discussion"
It is recommended that the authors should enhance the discussion section. The current content does not provide a deep and meaningful analysis based on this study's results. For example, the authors could explore the reasons behind the study's findings or analyze the differences between related research and this study findings.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
It is recommended that authors polish the manuscript.
This type of expression rarely occurs in English: “ So as to provide reference for the public to practice the ecological environment behavior, shape the environment-friendly social norms, and promote the construction of ecological civilization”.
Minimise colloquial expressions: "So as to", "And the survey indicators in 2003,2010 and 2021 are generally consistent", "What’s more".
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear Editor and Assistant Editor, I am writing to inform you that the manuscript has been revised well in response to the reviewers' criticisms and suggestions. I agree to publish the paper currently.
Best regards
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageNon.
Author Response
We are very grateful to the reviewers for their previous valuable comments and positive encouragement. As for the language problem of the article, we have invited relevant experts to make further revisions, and we have marked the specific revisions in the article using red text. Thank you again for your positive comments on the article.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1. The introduction needs to more clearly establish the gap this study is trying to address. The revised manuscript simply repeats the research content.
2. The overall framework diagram of the research needs to be revised to reflect the overall idea, main methods, and key conclusions of the study.
3. The accuracy of the main data source should be semantically described, and whether it can achieve the research purpose, as well as the usage of other scholars, should be explained.
4. I suggest the author to draw a map of spatial differences based on the research results, in order to clearly display the spatiotemporal differentiation pattern.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor editing of English language is required.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsNo further comments
Author Response
We are very grateful to the reviewers for their previous valuable comments and positive encouragement. As for the language problem of the article, we have invited relevant experts to make further revisions, and we have marked the specific revisions in the article using red text. Thank you again for your positive comments on the article.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
