Response to Tahir et al.'s commentary on our BSRS causal framework for longitudinal well-being data.

Abstract

We thank Tahir et al. for their respectful and constructive commentary on our article proposing the Behaviour Self-Regulation Score (BSRS) and a causally-informed workflow for longitudinal self-report well-being data (Wang et al., 2026). We clarify that (i) the completeness threshold was established a priori to support stable estimation, and we reported included-versus-excluded baseline comparisons showing no statistically significant differences on key measured variables; (ii) while treatment- and outcome-related items were collected via an evening daily questionnaire, we defined day-level temporal ordering and stated identification assumptions; and (iii) our causal interpretation is conditional on standard assumptions, which we complemented with exposure-specific backdoor adjustment and three refutation checks (random common cause, placebo permutation, and data-subset stability), while transparently noting remaining limitations including self-report bias and potential time-varying confounding. We welcome the opportunity to clarify these points in response to the Letter to the Editor.