Table 3.

Characteristics of participants in the China-Canada survey 2012

Characteristic/opinion	China n = 121 (100 %)	Canada n = 86 (100 %)	t	p value
1. Current role
A scientist	69 (57 %)	25 (29 %)	3.98	p < 0.05*
A policy maker	23 (19 %)	26 (30 %)	−1.83	n.s.
Both a scientist and a policy maker	29 (24 %)	35 (41 %)	−2.60	p < 0.05*
2. Years working as a scientist
Never	23 (19 %)	26 (30 %)	−1.83	n.s.
1–9 years	12 (10 %)	13 (15 %)	−1.09	n.s.
10–19 years	34 (28 %)	18 (21 %)	1.14	n.s.
20+ years	52 (43 %)	29 (34 %)	1.31	n.s.
3. Years working as a policy maker
Never	69 (57 %)	25 (29 %)	3.98	p < 0.05*
1-9 years	24 (20 %)	17 (20 %)	0.00	n.s.
10–19 years	20 (17 %)	33 (38 %)	−3.41	p < 0.05*
20+ years	8 (7 %)	11 (13 %)	−1.45	n.s.
4. Sex
Male	75 (62 %)	40 (47 %)	2.14	p < 0.05*
Female	46 (38 %)	46 (53 %)	−2.14	p < 0.05*
5. Age
<35 years	11 (9 %)	1 (1 %)	2.45	p < 0.05*
35–54 years	94 (78 %)	44 (51 %)	4.06	p < 0.05*
55+ years	16 (13 %)	41 (48 %)	−5.56	p < 0.05*
6. How important do you think it is to bridge the gap between science and policy?
Very important	78 (64 %)	68 (79 %)	−2.33	p < 0.05*
Somewhat important	36 (30 %)	14 (16 %)	2.32	p < 0.05*
Neither important nor unimportant	6 (5 %)	3 (3 %)	0.71	n.s.
Somewhat unimportant	1 (1 %)	0 (0 %)	0.93	n.s.
Very unimportant	0 (0 %)	1 (1 %)	−1.10	n.s.

n.s. non-significant

*p < 0.05 (two-sided), **p < 0.01 (two-sided)