cportner
commented
3 years ago To address this, I have made the following changes:
- Rewritten the Abstract as detailed
- In the Introduction's summary of results I lead with the changes in birth spacing and sex ratios and then say that these are likely arising from sex-selective abortions.
- Specify that the grouping into more and less sex selection when analyzing birth spacing is based on sex ratios and clarify that the use of sex selection is inferred rather than established when analyzing birth spacing.
- For the Conclusion, tone down the conclusions to focus on increasing birth spacing and that these likely came from sex selection as indicated by the increasingly male-biased sex ratio.
The author should clearly note that sex selection is not observed and tone down some conclusions, such as “Sex selection, however, is behind the most substantial increases in birth spacing. The best-educated women with two girls had the most biased sex ratio and the most significant increase in birth intervals.” The author could say that sex selection appears to be behind these findings; or evidence suggests that sex selection is behind these findings, etc. In addition, clarify that those most likely to practice sex selection (women with highest education and two girls) is based on your analysis, not settled in the literature.