Development of an Online Reporting Interface to Detect and Reduce Animal Abuse Cases^†

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A good read and I can certainly see the merit in this.

Line 10: remove “the title”

Line 21: If it is proposed, it cannot already be contributing, so add ‘could’ or ‘would’.

Figure 1 and 2: When you use an image that has been amended, cropped, or modified from another source, you must acknowledge the original creator and explicitly state that you have altered the image. Proper citation and copyright attribution are required for modified materials. Use 'adapted from' or 'digitally altered from'. Include the full source of where you found the image in your bibliography or reference list. You still must cite the original source, even if the image is in the public domain or heavily modified. As for Figure 1, I don’t think you have indicated the correct source. Also, these two images – you would have discussed their relevance in your presentation but have not discussed them for the reader. What is their significance to your presentation, and can you not use words to describe these? Ito images to use, some more of the interface would be good, and not just the one you did show.

Line 34: ‘cases remain significantly limited’ – what are the other reasons besides the one you present?

Line 50-56: Combine these two paragraphs; the aim refers to the interface you just described.

Results: You interviewed different groups of people, so what themes and or issues came from these different groups, how did they differ? This would be an interesting result.

Line 117-119: While this is a limitation, it is no more of a limitation than experienced by traditional reporting systems – and this should be stated.

Line 123: this is the first time you mention its application in the legal process; it should appear somewhere in the introduction and even abstract.

Figure 3: Your caption states that this is the Hungarian home page – if I understand correctly, it would be in Hungarian and you have amended the language to English for the presentation and manuscript – if that is the case, it must say so.

A question I have which should be addressed. Can people make anonymous reports of cruelty, or can they be granted anonymity?

Discussion: Far too scant, you need far more here. Some can be taken from your Introduction and your Introduction can tell us more general info such as the number of cruelty cases per year and why the need for the reporting system in the first place.

Line 188: You have already mentioned the limitations (line 117) and are repeating yourself, keep them for here in the Discussion.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A nice paper; effort and changes acknowledged and accepted.