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Table 2 Percentage of respondents who regarded the practice as plagiarism

From: Perceptions of plagiarism by biomedical researchers: an online survey in Europe and China

Statement of practice

Percentage of total respondents (%, n = 1030)

Percentage of researchers in Europe (%, n = 826)

Percentage of researchers in China (%, n = 204)

P valuea

Adjusted OR (95% CI)b

Statement 17. Appropriation of others’ text, image and ideas

 a. Copying text from someone else’s publication without crediting the source.

97.7

98.7

93.6

<.001

0.15 (0.05;0.43)

 b. Copying text from someone else’s publication with crediting the source, but without quotation marks.

48.5

51.6

36.3

<.001

0.40 (0.27;0.59)

 c. Copying text from someone else’s publication with crediting the source and with quotation marks.

6.1

6.2

5.9

0.876

1.09 (0.51;2.36)

 d. Copying an image from someone else’s publication without crediting the source.

96.0

96.4

94.6

0.249

0.54 (0.22;1.34)

 e. Using idea(s) from someone else’s publication without crediting the source.

67.1

67.4

65.7

0.634

1.03 (0.70;1.53)

Statement 18. Appropriation of online sources

 a. Copying text from an online source without crediting the source.

95.5

97.3

88.2

<.001

0.20 (0.09;0.45)

 b. Copying text from an online source that has no list of authors, and without crediting the source.

79.2

81.7

69.1

<.001

0.46 (0.30;0.71)

Statement 19. Rephrasing or summarizing another person’s work

 a. Rephrasing another person’s work without crediting the source.

84.6

83.8

87.8

0.160

1.27 (0.75;2.17)

 b. Rephrasing text from someone else’s publication without significant modification of the original, but with crediting the source.

16.9

17.7

13.7

0.178

0.77 (0.46;1.29)

 c. Summarizing another person’s work without crediting the source.

78.6

80.5

71.1

0.003

0.68 (0.44;1.04)

Statement 20. Text resources of article writing

 a. Paying someone else to write a paper without granting authorship.

37.3

33.5

52.4

<.001

2.44 (1.67;3.55)

 b. Having someone else to write a paper for free without granting authorship.

49.5

46.0

63.7

<.001

2.18 (1.50;3.17)

 c. Putting together pieces from different publications, and presenting the result as one’s own work.

94.4

95.0

91.7

0.062

0.50 (0.24;1.04)

 d. When writing a literature review, using the same framework of others’ review, without crediting the source.

53.1

53.0

53.4

0.917

1.01 (0.70;1.45)

 e. With permission from the original author, using another’s text without crediting the source.

67.4

68.9

61.3

0.038

0.65 (0.44;0.96)

Statement 21. Publishing in multiple languages

 a. Republishing others’ work in another language without crediting the source.

98.4

98.4

98.5

0.915

1.47 (0.34;6.38)

 b. Republishing one’s own work in another language without crediting the source.

64.2

67.7

50.00

<.001

0.38 (0.26;0.56)

Statement 22. Reuse of research proposal

 a. Reusing one’s own previously rejected research proposal for another funding application without crediting the source.

11.2

9.3

18.6

<.001

2.17 (1.27;3.70)

 b. Reusing a significant portion of one’s own previous publication for a new publication without crediting the source.

79.0

79.4

77.4

0.536

0.65 (0.41;1.01)

Statement 23. Republication of dissertations

 a. One has submitted work as dissertation/thesis, and submits parts of it to a journal afterwards without crediting the source.

29.2

32.4

16.2

<.001

0.44 (0.28;0.70)

 b. One has submitted work as dissertation/thesis, and submits a summary of it to a journal afterwards without crediting the source.

26.3

29.5

13.2

<.001

0.43 (0.26;0.70)

  1. * P values based on Chi square tests when comparing Europe and China
  2. ** ORs (with 95% CIs) based on logistic regression analysis, with adjustments for demographic variables (including age, gender, academic position, PhD, international research experience). Reference is Europe