Introduction:

Interest in research and scientific production in tertiary education are constantly evolving, but improvements and resolution of limitations are still needed so that scientific production is not concentrated in the postgraduate field but begins its ascent from the undergraduate level.

Objective:

Evaluate the level of interest in research and scientific production of medical students.

Material and methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 177 medical students and the data were collected through an electronic form, which had 25 questions focused on basic training and interest in research and scientific production. The data were processed in the STATA 14.0 software. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, χ2 and Wilcoxon tests were used, considering significant values of p<0.05.

Results:

Responses were recorded from 177 students of the 6 years of the medical career, 66.7% female, average age 22.2 (1.96) years, 90% from the department of Caaguazú. 83.1% read scientific articles, 80.8% are interested in publishing their thesis, 92% are interested in dedicating themselves to research when they are professionals, 33.9% have presented scientific posters, 7.3% have made oral presentations at a congress and 17.5% have published scientific articles.

Conclusions:

There was evidence of a high interest in research, in discrepancy with the low figures of scientific production. Therefore, it is recommended to take measures to strengthen students' skills in research topics and increase the scientific output of the student body.

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