Comparing Regional Attitudes toward Immigrants in Six European Countries
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The study presented in this paper addresses the issue of immigration, using a methodology (Fuzzy Hybrid TOPSIS) that is not commonly used in the social sciences.
The paper is very well anchored in the field of study, the applied method is briefly presented, and the results obtained are consistent with those of other previous studies in the literature.
Pay attention to the numbering of the tables.
Author Response
Thank you for reviewing our manuscript. We have checked the numbering of the tables.
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors of the paper describe their proposed approach for "Attitudes Toward Immigrants. Comparing Island and Continental Regions in Six European Countries". The topic is interesting and with possible real applicability. However, the paper needs several improvements:
1) the main contribution and originality should be explained in more detail, is the use of fuzzy TOPSIS in this application?
2) the motivation of the approach with fuzzy needs further clarification, why fuzzy logic helps?
3) discussion of related work in fuzzy logic should be expanded with more recent work
4) Minor grammar and syntax issues need correction
5) more simulation results and formal comparison of results are needed
6) the conclusions should be extended with more future work
7) in my opinion, the title of the paper could be improved, it is strange the use of a 'dot' inside the text of the title
8) Paragraphs are needed at the beginning of Section 5 and before 5.1, the same for Section 6 and 6.1
9) More references to recent fuzzy logic papers could be included, for example:
The assessment of a smart system in hydroponic vertical farming via fuzzy MCDM methods. J. Intell. Fuzzy Syst. 42(1): 1-12 (2022)
- Finite-interval-valued Type-2 Gaussian fuzzy numbers applied to fuzzy TODIM in a healthcare problem. Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell. 87 (2020)
Author Response
The authors of the paper describe their proposed approach for "Attitudes Toward Immigrants. Comparing Island and Continental Regions in Six European Countries". The topic is interesting and with possible real applicability. However, the paper needs several improvements:
1) the main contribution and originality should be explained in more detail, is the use of fuzzy TOPSIS in this application?
The main contribution of this work is to apply the Fuzzy Hybrid Approach in this field. The literature is mainly based on applying the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to study the attitudes toward immigrants. We, here, are introducing a novel approach to this topic, proving that our method can provide higher quality results as it manages adequately the vagueness of the information (lines 33-38).
2) the motivation of the approach with fuzzy needs further clarification, why fuzzy logic helps?
The motivations for the use of fuzzy logic are explained in lines 169-175. This approach can manage adequately the vagueness of the information provided by the answers’ to the questionnaire.
3) discussion of related work in fuzzy logic should be expanded with more recent work
We have added two recent works in different fields following your suggestion. See lines 168-69. We thank you for this.
4) Minor grammar and syntax issues need correction
We have edited and checked the whole manuscript.
5) more simulation results and formal comparison of results are needed
We do not understand quite well what type of new simulation results with formal comparisons is needed. Does the referee mean other covariates for which we can study ATI? It is not clear.
6) the conclusions should be extended with more future work
We have added an additional paragraph providing extended details for future research.
7) in my opinion, the title of the paper could be improved, it is strange the use of a 'dot' inside the text of the title
We have titled the paper differently omitting the dot as “Comparing Regional Attitudes Toward Immigrants in Six European Countries.”
8) Paragraphs are needed at the beginning of Section 5 and before 5.1, the same for Section 6 and 6.1
We have added a brief introduction in sections 5 and 6.
9) More references to recent fuzzy logic papers could be included, for example:
- The assessment of a smart system in hydroponic vertical farming via fuzzy MCDM methods. J. Intell. Fuzzy Syst. 42(1): 1-12 (2022)
- Finite-interval-valued Type-2 Gaussian fuzzy numbers applied to fuzzy TODIM in a healthcare problem. Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell. 87 (2020)
Thank you very much. We have added these two interesting fuzzy logic papers in our work.
We would like to thank the reviewers that helped us to improve our paper. All comments have been taken into consideration with the exception of the second reviewer’s fifth comment for which we do not know how to react.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The issue of Attitudes Toward Immigrants (ATI) is an important and timely one, as the migrating population is recently growing rapidly in some European countries. Based on International Social Survey Program (ISSP) dataset of 2013, this paper utilized Fuzzy-Hybrid TOPSIS method to analyze the heterogeneity of the citizens' attitudes toward immigrants in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, and Portugal. The authors lay out the arguments clearly, while the contributions are mainly on the descriptive level. There are some problems that the authors should carefully address:
1. In the section of data description, the reasons for selecting six European countries within the dataset were not fully explained.
2. There are 8 items related to ATI in the ISSP questionnaire. The authors described these eight problems separately. The reliability and validity information of this scale could be supplemented.
3. The authors compare the differences of ATI among various region/socio-economic groups. However, it was not stated whether these differences were statistically significant. The authors could supplement this information.
4. In terms of clerical errors, the information of which level Portugal belongs to is missing (lines 128-130). The third column of Table 4 missed ATI numerical information.
In summary, this paper is well organized and provides some novel methodology and findings. However, there are questions regarding the clarification of samples characteristics and analytical strategy.
Author Response
The issue of Attitudes Toward Immigrants (ATI) is an important and timely one, as the migrating population is recently growing rapidly in some European countries. Based on International Social Survey Program (ISSP) dataset of 2013, this paper utilized Fuzzy-Hybrid TOPSIS method to analyze the heterogeneity of the citizens' attitudes toward immigrants in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, and Portugal. The authors lay out the arguments clearly, while the contributions are mainly on the descriptive level. There are some problems that the authors should carefully address:
- In the section of data description, the reasons for selecting six European countries within the dataset were not fully explained.
Thank you for your comment. We have added a detailed explanation of that in the lines 131-134.
- There are 8 items related to ATI in the ISSP questionnaire. The authors described these eight problems separately. The reliability and validity information of this scale could be supplemented.
We have added a reference that validates the 8 items chosen to measure ATI(l. 142). We want to clarify to the referee that the fuzzy TOPSIS approach is by its nature a deterministic approach and it is not based on the construction of some scale that needs the reliability and validity check. Nevertheless, the method is usually applied to some items included in a reliable and valid scale.
- The authors compare the differences of ATI among various region/socio-economic groups. However, it was not stated whether these differences were statistically significant. The authors could supplement this information.
The method used in our analyses is a deterministic approach. Thus, statistical significance does not have a clear meaning here.
- In terms of clerical errors, the information of which level Portugal belongs to is missing (lines 128-130). The third column of Table 4 missed ATI numerical information.
We have added Portugal’s NUTS level and the missed values in Table 4. Thank you.
In summary, this paper is well organized and provides some novel methodology and findings. However, there are questions regarding the clarification of samples characteristics and analytical strategy.
Thank you for your suggestions. We really appreciate them.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have addressed all my concerns and suggestions, so I suggest that the paper is accepted.
Author Response
The authors have addressed all my concerns and suggestions, so I suggest that the paper is accepted.
Thank you for your positive feedback. Once again, we appreciate your comments.
