Review Reports - Culture–Religion—Ethnicity (Alliance of Identities in the Environment of Foreign Slovak Communities)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article presents interesting research results.

However, in Part 2. Materials and Methods, the methods of the research performed are described too generally. More details should be provided: what cities (names) were surveyed, whether they were large cities or small towns, where the polls were conducted, why were these and not other cities selected, why were these countries selected for the study, what age were the respondents, justify the selection of the research sample. It all needs to be described in detail.
In the Results part - I would suggest a division into sub-points:

Proposals (The author may choose a different breakdown)

Line 133 - 3.1 for example Slovak emigration

Line 163 - 3.2 Magyarization

3.3 Eastern Orthodox

3.4 Roman Church

Author Response

Many thanks to the reviewer for his inspiring, well-founded and relevant recommendations, opinions, comments, observations and suggestions.
All have been incorporated and improved the article.
1. "in Part 2. Materials and Methods, the methods of the research performed are described too generally. More details should be provided: what cities (names) were surveyed, whether they were large cities or small towns, where the polls were conducted, why were these and not other cities selected, why were these countries selected for the study, what age were the respondents, justify the selection of the research sample. It all needs to be described in detail."

Part has been completed:
- The criteria for selecting research sites (lines 83-100)
- The criteria for selecting respondents (lines 101-109)
- more information on field research (lines 125-129)
- more information about reserch locations and respondents (lines 130-227)
- more information on archival research (lines (232-235)

2. "In the Results part - I would suggest a division into sub-points:
Proposals (The author may choose a different breakdown)
Line 133 - 3.1 for example Slovak emigration
Line 163 - 3.2 Magyarization
3.3 Eastern Orthodox
3.4 Roman Church"

The structure of Part 3 Results has been specified:
3.1.1 Lowland migration (line 241)
3.1.2 Overseas migration (line 273)
3.2.1 Magyarization (line 305)
3.2.2 Catholic Croatia majority (line 331)
3.2.3 Eastern Orthodox majority (line 344)
3.3. Religious identity vs. ethnic identity (line 384)
3.3.1 Slovaks in Canada (line 388)
3.3.2 Slovaks in Argentina (line 428)
3.4 Folk religiosity, lived religion (line 451)

note: one data has been updated (lines 416 - 417)

Reviewer 2 Report

The article seeks to “map and historically understand” the religious, cultural, and ethnic identities of Slovak immigrants and “the role that religion and the Church played in the formation of these ethnic processes. The authors see these identities as forming an „Alliance“ in order to preserve what might be called Slovak-ness.
The material for the study was collected during a rather long time, 15 years, from 2005-2020, in several locations and using different methods, ranging from archival work to interviews to participant observation. As the article states, it is a partial result of this research.

In what follows, I will discuss what I see as strengths and the weaknesses from the point of a reviewer, thus focusing more on the aspects that could be improved.

Strenghts:

Excellent and clear language, very easy to read
Interesting context and material for studying complex entanglement of religious, cultural and ethnic identities

Weaknesses:

The title in its current form is somewhat confusing - not sure what the part in the brackets means, while the question mark seems to point that the author is not sure whether to choose “Alliance of identities” or not. Perhaps it is better to revise the title.
Methodology is described in very broad strokes and it is hard to understand what actually was done, in what settings informants were found and interviewed, what kind of archives were visited and what kind of archival documents used.
The article neither situates itself into some wider theory (about immigration or societal development or secularization) nor presents one. It very clearly an isolated case study – or, actually, an overview article of the research done, presenting very generalized findings.
- Just a note: in contrast to the generalizations that that characterize the article, a detailed description of the activities of a certain parish priest at the end of the article differs completely from the main bulk of the text.
As such, without specific knowledge on Slovak immigrants in particular settings, it is hard – actually, impossible – to criticize or assess the results presented in the text. As and overview-article it is readable and interesting, as a research article it needs major revision.
This criticism, however, might be unjustified since the article seems to be a part of a special issue – perhaps its goal is to illustrate a particular case and general framework is given in other articles.

Author Response

Many thanks to the reviewer for his inspiring, well-founded and relevant recommendations, opinions, comments, observations and suggestions.
All have been incorporated and improved the article.

1. "The title in its current form is somewhat confusing - not sure what the part in the brackets means, while the question mark seems to point that the author is not sure whether to choose “Alliance of identities” or not. Perhaps it is better to revise the title."

- the title has been changed to"Culture - Religion – Ethnicity (Alliance of identities in the environment of foreign Slovak communities)"

2. "Methodology is described in very broad strokes and it is hard to understand what actually was done, in what settings informants were found and interviewed, what kind of archives were visited and what kind of archival documents used."

3. "The article neither situates itself into some wider theory (about immigration or societal development or secularization) nor presents one. It very clearly an isolated case study – or, actually, an overview article of the research done, presenting very generalized findings.
Just a note: in contrast to the generalizations that that characterize the article, a detailed description of the activities of a certain parish priest at the end of the article differs completely from the main bulk of the text."

note: one data has been updated (lines 416 - 417)

4. "This criticism, however, might be unjustified since the article seems to be a part of a special issue – perhaps its goal is to illustrate a particular case and general framework is given in other articles."

- exactly, the article is part of a special issue on the topic "Exploring the Influence of Religions on Culture and Science" with special issue information and specific keywords (clear frameworks have been given)