'The environmental efficiency of Wanjiang demonstration area: A Bayesian estimation approach'

摘要

We are writing to comment on an article recently published in your journal by Song and Guan (2014), "The environmental efficiency of Wanjian demonstration area: a Bayesian estimation approach". The objective of this paper was to determine the factors that influence 'environmental efficiency', but the authors fail to produce reliable analysis and evidence to support their stated findings. We have concluded, after careful review of this article, that three main aspects of this paper limit the basis of its scientific validity. First, the statistical analyses used to support the author's conclusions were misinterpreted and inaccurate. Second, the explanatory variables used in the linear model to explain the 'environmental efficiency' scores were not clearly defined and potentially self-correlate with the response variable. Finally, the terminology used throughout the paper, both to define the parameters of the analysis and to justify the conclusions of the research, is ambiguous and not clearly articulated. In this letter, we discuss the interpretation of the linear regression model used in determining the factors influencing environmental efficiency, the authors' justification of the results, and the validity of the report.