Study on the Evolution of the Source-Flow-Sink Pattern of China’s Chunyun Population Migration Network: Evidence from Tencent Big Data

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is clear about the objectives to be achieved in the investigation

The methodology is sound and very interesting, consistent and suitable for the spatialization of the phenomena

The text gives a vivid description of human internal flows in today’s China. The approach to population mobility is very complete and well framed

The paper is also a good basis for other studies on migration and population flows in general.

Each of the maps must have an expressive title, which would allow an autonomous reading of each image, without the need of the written text; for example, where is a) and b), pages 6 and 7, would be more suitable to write the dates (2015/2019).

Some sentences are very long, which makes a fluid reading, and consequently the comprehension of the message, difficult.

Author Response

revisions are attached with the document

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper deals with the great issue of population flows and movements, strictly limited to certain regions of China.

The reading is very heavy.

It could be useful:
- compare with other experiences outside China;
- compare the theme of population displacement with other features of the place (socio-economic and territorial).

Author Response

Revisions are attached with document

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper is very interesting and well done. The use of a theory from other studies applied to the study of mobility is interesting.

I think, however, that there are some things to be reviewed

The part explaining the data from line 54 is too much. I would just suggest more references that used social data in the study of migration as opposed to administrative data such as the census.

In line 69 the authors refer to Tencent and Baidu without explaining what they are. Foreigners understand this later in the description of the data. I would add a small description here too.

On line 201 there is an error of two words attached

It is useful to have a map of the name of the districts, otherwise the foreign reader does not understand which area they located in. E.g. in the explanation from line 245 many areas are named, but a foreign reader is not familiar with these.

In figures 1, 2, 3 and 6 it is not clear what the letters a and b stand for. this is only clear in the explanation, but the figure must be self-referential, so it is important that the authors add the explanation in the title.

When authors provide explanations that are not derived from the analysis of the data as in line 252, they should add bibliographic references to support this as they are conjectures and not results of the analysis, as in line 334.

More emphasis should be placed in the conclusions on the results obtained with this theory than with others.

Furthermore, the bibliography is too focused on China, whereas it should be international on many aspects, e.g. there are many references on the use of social data to study migration.

Author Response

Revisions are attached with document

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Author Response

The cover letter are attached with the document.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx