REVIEWER 1 - COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW
================================================================================

**Review of "Epistemic Justice and Civilian Testimony in the Gaza Conflict (2023–2024)"**

---

### **📄 Step 1. Summary of the Paper**
This manuscript examines testimonial credibility and epistemic injustice in the Gaza conflict (2023–2025) using a mixed-methods approach. It analyzes the ACLED Palestine-Israel Conflict Dataset (32,000 events) to quantify conflict dynamics (e.g., Civilian Targeting Index, Infrastructure Destruction Rate) and qualitatively codes 312 narrative segments to explore themes of moral witnessing and communicative resilience. The paper claims to: (1) develop novel quantitative indicators for conflict analysis, (2) bridge quantitative and qualitative methods to study epistemic injustice, (3) extend epistemic justice theory to digital conflict contexts, and (4) provide empirical evidence of structural barriers to testimonial credibility. Findings include strong correlations between violence intensity and reduced humanitarian access/emotional resonance in testimony, regional disparities in communicative resilience, and adaptive testimonial practices under duress.

---

### **🔬 Step 2. Evaluation Criteria**

#### **1. Originality / Novelty**  
**Score: 6/10**  
- **Strengths**: The integration of epistemic justice theory with conflict event data is underexplored. The development of quantitative indices (e.g., CTI, ETI) to measure structural epistemic injustice is innovative.  
- **Weaknesses**: The core concepts (epistemic injustice, moral witnessing) are well-established, and the application to Gaza, while timely, overlaps with existing critical media studies. The mixed-methods approach is standard in social sciences.  
- **Justification**: The paper extends but does not radically transform existing frameworks. Novelty lies in methodological triangulation rather than theoretical breakthroughs.

#### **2. Scientific Rigor / Methodology**  
**Score: 4/10**  
- **Strengths**: Explicit methodological protocols (e.g., Creswell & Creswell, 2018) and triangulation are commendable.  
- **Critical Flaws**:  
  - **Data Validity**: Reliance solely on ACLED data risks selection bias. ACLED depends on public sources, which may underrepresent testimonies from areas with total communication blackouts.  
  - **Indicator Construction**: Metrics like CTI and ETI lack validation against ground-truth data. For instance, ETI’s sentiment analysis is not detailed (e.g., lexicon used, inter-coder reliability).  
  - **Temporal Scope**: Data extends to July 2025 (future dates), undermining credibility.  
  - **Missing Controls**: No discussion of confounding variables (e.g., Israeli military narratives, international media bias) in correlation analyses.  
- **Ethical Approval**: Use of public data avoids consent issues but does not address power imbalances in data production.

#### **3. Clarity & Presentation**  
**Score: 7/10**  
- **Strengths**: Well-structured abstract, clear research questions, and effective use of tables to summarize trends.  
- **Weaknesses**:  
  - **Jargon Overuse**: Terms like "epistemic agency" and "communicative resilience" are repeated without consistent operationalization.  
  - **Ambiguous Quotes**: Qualitative excerpts (e.g., "Uploading becomes our ceasefire") are poignant but lack contextual metadata (e.g., speaker demographics, verification).  
  - **Overstated Conclusions**: Claims of "measurable evidence for structural epistemic injustice" are not fully supported by methodological limitations.

#### **4. Reproducibility & Transparency**  
**Score: 3/10**  
- **Critical Issues**:  
  - No access to raw narrative data or code for indicator calculation.  
  - Sentiment analysis methodology for ETI is vague (e.g., tools, coding rules).  
  - Sampling criteria for qualitative segments are described but not replicable without data.  
- **Strengths**: Detailed correlation matrices and temporal trends are provided.

#### **5. Significance & Impact**  
**Score: 8/10**  
- **Strengths**: Addresses urgent humanitarian concerns and highlights systemic biases in conflict reporting. Findings on infrastructure destruction and testimonial suppression could inform policy on protecting communication channels in war zones.  
- **Limitations**: Impact is constrained by methodological flaws, which may limit uptake in policy circles.

#### **6. Ethics & Integrity**  
**Score: 5/10**  
- **Strengths**: Commitment to "representational dignity" and use of anonymized data aligns with ethical norms.  
- **Concerns**:  
  - **Positionality Bias**: The paper explicitly centers Palestinian voices but does not reflect on how this influences interpretation (e.g., no discussion of potential counter-narratives).  
  - **Conflict of Interest**: No declaration of funding or ideological affiliations.  
  - **Data Integrity**: Future-dated data (e.g., 2025) suggests possible fabrication or serious error.

---

### **🧪 Step 3. Specific Suggestions for Improvement**

#### **Major Flaws (Must Address)**  
1. **Data Issues**:  
   - Explain or correct references to data beyond 2024. If projected, clarify methodology.  
   - Validate ACLED data with complementary sources (e.g., UN reports, local NGOs) to address selection bias.  
2. **Methodological Rigor**:  
   - Provide full details on sentiment analysis (e.g., dictionary, machine learning model) and inter-coder reliability for qualitative coding.  
   - Demonstrate robustness of indices (e.g., CTI) via sensitivity analyses.  
3. **Theoretical Balance**:  
   - Acknowledge and engage with counterarguments (e.g., Israeli security narratives) to avoid perceived partisan framing.  
4. **Reproducibility**:  
   - Share code/algorithm for indicator calculations and a sample of annotated qualitative data.

#### **Minor Flaws**  
- Reduce repetitive phrasing (e.g., "structural epistemic injustice" appears 12 times).  
- Clarify acronyms (e.g., IDR, ETI) upon first use in each section.  
- Fix formatting inconsistencies in references (e.g., italicization, author lists).

#### **Additional Analyses to Strengthen Manuscript**  
- Conduct multivariate regression to control for confounders (e.g., international media attention).  
- Compare ACLED data with other conflict datasets (e.g., UCDP) to assess robustness.  
- Include interviews with journalists or humanitarian workers to contextualize quantitative trends.

---

### **📊 Step 4. Final Decision & Justification**

#### **Overall Score: 5/10**  
The paper addresses a critical topic with theoretical ambition and methodological innovation but is marred by fatal flaws in data integrity and reproducibility. The future-dated data alone necessitates major revision. While the mixed-methods approach and emphasis on epistemic justice are valuable, the analysis lacks the rigor expected for a high-impact journal.

#### **Recommendation: Reject**  
**Justification**:  
- **Fatal Flaws**: References to data up to July 2025 invalidate the empirical foundation. Without clarification or correction, the study cannot be trusted.  
- **Methodological Weaknesses**: Unvalidated indices, opaque sentiment analysis, and reliance on a single dataset undermine claims.  
- **Ethical Concerns**: Positionality is acknowledged but not critically examined, risking perceived advocacy over objectivity.  
- **Potential for Resubmission**: If the authors address data issues, enhance methodological transparency, and engage more deeply with counter-narratives, this could be a compelling contribution. As presented, it does not meet the bar for publication.

---

**Confidential Note to Editor**: This paper tackles a politically sensitive topic with courage, but its academic rigor is compromised. I recommend rejection unless the authors can substantiate the data anomalies and address methodological gaps. If revised, ensure strict blind review to avoid bias.