Table 2.
Percentage of respondents who regarded the practice as plagiarism
| 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) |
* P values based on Chi square tests when comparing Europe and China
** 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