About the New Methodology and XAI-Based Software Toolkit for Risk Assessment

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. A more convenient definition of risk is that contained in ISO 31000: "The effect of uncertainty on objectives". The sentence presented by the authors in the Abstract "... risk is based on the fact that risk is the amount of any damage or loss multiplied by the probability of an event that could cause the damage" is not a definition, but a procedure for calculating the risk priority number. Please review this statement in the Abstract.
2. Again, ISO 3000 offers a better description of Risk Management: "systematic application of management policies, procedures and practices to the tasks of communication, consultation, establishing the context, identifying, analyzing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and reviewing risk". I ask the authors to replace the definition of Risk Management in the Introduction section with that from ISO 3000 or a similar one.
3. It is unclear to me what the authors refer to by "... the interdisciplinary definition of risk", however, the statement that the definitions of risk given by the various authors are partial or incomplete is too blunt, as if each author was defining risk with a problem-oriented bias. Perhaps a few studies have confused definition with procedure, however, this statement is far from being a general finding. I ask the authors to rewrite this paragraph.
4. The Experimental Simulation section is incomplete. Authors should explain Tables 3-5, Figures 12-14 and how to interpret the results shown in Table 6.

Author Response

1. Definition of risk used from ISO 31000 standard and the statement in the abstract modified to emphasize not the definition of risk but the procedure for calculating the risk priority number.
2. Risk management description used from ISO 31000 standard.
3. The paragraph has been rewritten to explain that there are different risk approaches, definitions, methods, and procedures and that there is a lack of unity in assessing risk in different fields. We are proposing a new risk approach and methodology for estimation. The proposed methodology can be used to calculate risk estimations in different fields.
4. Explained Tables 3-5, Figures 12-14 and the result interpretation shown in Table 6.

Reviewer 2 Report

In the manuscript "About the New Methodology and XAI-Based Software Toolkit for Risk Assessment" by Meskauskas and Kazanavicius a new concept of risk assessment based on SWOT analysis has been proposed.

Overall, the manuscript is well-written, however, there are some issues that should be fixed prior to the acceptance:

1. Introduction section is missing references.
2. Reference numbering is organized in a strange way. Please take a look.
3. Last sentence of the Concluding remarks should be re-phrased. 
4. Authors should indicate weaknesses of the proposed approach.
5. English should be checked throughout the manuscript.

Author Response

1. References added to the introduction.
2. All the references are cited in sequential numerical order.
3. The last paragraph of the conclusions has been rewritten.
4. The weaknesses of the proposed approach are described in the conclusions.
5. English checked, corrected. Additionally, professional English proofreading is planned.

Reviewer 3 Report

In my opinion the authors should explain the benefits of the proposed approach for risk assessement integrating the SWOT analysis. by reading the manuscript, the work seems an attempt to proposed a risk management tool.

In any case a comparison with classical methodologies would be useful, in order to validate results obtained from a different approach and comment about the findings.

The methodology should be better focused in order to clarify the objective of the paper. 

Author Response

1. Benefits of the proposed approach are explained in more details.
2. Comparison with classical methodologies is described.
3. The article has been modified to make the methodology more focused to clarify the objective of the paper.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have addressed the comments. Manuscript is ready for acceptance.