Do biomedical researchers differ in their perceptions of plagiarism across Europe? Findings from an online survey among leading universities

Table 2 Demographic characteristics of the respondents

Variables	Percentage of respondents (%)				P value^a
	Total	N	S	NW	N VS. S	N VS. NW	S VS. NW
Age (n = 808)
< = 30y	11.0	7.6	5.0	14.4	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
31-40y	32.6	36.5	10.9	35.4
41-50y	22.0	20.2	22.8	23.0
51-60y	21.5	18.2	34.6	20.5
> 60y	12.7	17.5	26.7	6.8
Age (n = 808)	N	263	101	444	< 0.001	0.002	< 0.001
	Mean	46.1	52.8	42.8
	Std	12.91	11.11	11.42
Gender (n = 809)
Female	44.6	47.4	45.5	42.8
Male	55.3	52.6	54.5	57.2
Mother tongue (n = 810)
English	15.9	8.7	1.0	23.6	0.008	< 0.001	< 0.001
Other	84.1	91.3	99.0	76.4
Current academic position (n = 810)
Professor	25.1	18.9	38.6	25.7	< 0.001	0.001	< 0.001
Associate professor	19.4	23.8	32.7	13.7
Assistant professor	10.6	8.3	19.8	9.9
Postdoc	24.7	27.6	3.0	27.9
Other	18.4	17.7	5.9	21.6
Not a scientific researcher	1.8	3.8	0	1.1
PhD degree (n = 810)
Yes	82.7	88.3	80.2	80.0	0.005	0.016
Current PhD candidate	8.9	6.8	5.0	11.0
No	8.4	4.9	14.8	9.0
Year of obtaining PhD degree (n = 643)
< 1979	2.8	3.5	8.0	1.2	< 0.001		< 0.001
1979–1988	7.6	6.2	14.7	7.0
1989–1998	21.9	18.1	38.7	20.8
1999–2008	28.1	29.5	22.7	28.4
2009–2018	39.5	42.7	16.0	42.5
International research experience (> 6 months) (n = 810)
Yes	61.7	61.5	54.5	63.5
No	38.3	38.5	45.5	36.5

^aP values based on Chi square tests of pairwise comparisons between the three regions. P values are only listed when P < 0.017
N, S and NW stand for Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, and Sweden), Southern European countries (Italy and Spain), and Northwestern European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK)

ISSN: 1472-6939