Objectives: The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge level of dental researchers at Mansoura University of Egypt.
Subjects and methods: Participants of this cross-sectional study were recruited from the Faculty of Dentistry at Mansoura University using a well-structured, self-administered, close-ended questionnaire based on the Declaration of Helsinki ethical principles. After providing informed consent, 496 dental researchers participated in the study.
Results: Study tool validation revealed content validity indices of 0.88 and 0.86, the internal consistency of the questionnaire items was 0.87. All study participants emphasized the importance of research ethics committees, while 93.5% were aware of the research ethics committee at their institution. The most followed ethical guidelines at the researchers' institutions were the Declaration of Helsinki principles. The participants' knowledge level about the Declaration was 0.65. Participants' qualifications had the greatest impact on their knowledge level (beta= 0.15 at p = 0.05).
Conclusions: The participants' knowledge level was above average, and researchers' qualifications showed the highest impact on their knowledge level followed by the place of work.