Date: 4th March 2014
Professor Nor Zuraida Zainal
Editor-in-Chief
Malaysian Journal of Psychiatry
http://www.mjpsychiatry.org
Prof,
RESUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT: PERSONALITY PROFILES OF MALAYSIAN MALE
PRISONERS CONVICTED OF MURDER
I respectfully refer to the above matter.
I, Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin have received the feedbacks from your side and also from the
reviewer. Based on the reviewer’s comments, we have revised the manuscript and improved according to
the need of the reviewer. Hope this article will be published in your journal Prof. Thank you so much for
the opportunity given to us to publish in MJP.
2. Based on the reviewer’s comments and feedbacks, we have made some amendments in this manuscript.
The table below depicts the suggestions from the reviewer and the changes made by our side. Hope it will
give a clearer picture to MJP prior to publication.

Reviewer’s comments/ suggestions
Suggest change of topic to personality
profile of male prisoners convicted of
murder in Malaysia


Introduction gives little about profile of
people who kill. Murder is a legal term that
means killing someone intentionally. Most
profiles are broader on aggression etc.


Authors focused on the Zuckerman FFM.
Others have looked at psychopathy etc.
some mention must be made of those other
areas.
Methodology is serious flaw. How 71
selected. Purposive means what. A table of
all convicted of killing would be useful
and then describe how this group of 71
chosen.



Changes made by authors
Authors changed the title to personality profiles of
Malaysian male prisoners convicted of murder as
the respondents are Malaysians. Therefore, authors
felt this will be more reflective.
Authors have included definition of murder and
several examples of personality traits of criminal
behaviour. The personality traits specifically about
murderers are little as most of the criminology
literatures discussed personality traits that
associated with criminal behaviour. Therefore, it is
applicable to use such traits in relating to murder as
murderous act is a form of criminal behaviour.
Authors have included more explanation for the
rationale use of AFFM.
The present study employed purposive sampling
method. Purposive sampling method is also known
as judgmental/deliberate sampling method (nonprobability sampling method). The researchers have
to use purposive sampling method due to the
vulnerability and the dangerousness of this group. In
other words, respondents were chosen by Malaysian
Department of Prison authority with predetermined
selection criteria that set by researchers. Researchers
have no choice other than recruiting them in
purposive sampling manner. This type of sampling


At best this is exploratory.


Authors made comments on little evidence.
e.g. item 6 where load was low i.e. most
respondents reported feeling calm. Authors
commented that the crime was done in
rage and when anger no longer bearable.
This statement cannot be made with no or
little evidence.


Limitations not explained. i.e. selected
sample, biased group who volunteered,
zuckerman FFM in Malay and its
validation needs to be brought to question.
It was not a validation but rather
translation and reliability parameters. No
validation values given for the Malay
version .



is widely used in several circumstances (i.e., when
the sample is described as vulnerable and etc).
Actually, the researchers could not provide the table
of all convicted as it is against the prison rules (the
researchers were reminded not to expose the list of
prisoners including statistics). However, for this
review purpose, researchers would like to inform the
reviewer that the number of murderers at the time of
data collection was 200.
Yes. Agreed. The present study is the first national
study on murderers.
Changed as per reviewer’s comment and suggestion.
Limitations are added at the end of discussion
ZKPQ-M-40-CC was actually validated and
published in Health and Environment Journal
(please refer reference no 16).
The internal consistency of this questionnaire is
0.75. Authors have included the reliability value in
this manuscript.
Hope the reviewer will be happy and satisfied with the amendments made by our side. Thanks Prof. for
this opportunity. We look forward to hearing your decision soon.
Best regards,
Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin
Universiti Sains Malaysia