Factors contributing to the student scientific production. The case of Dentistry in the National University of San Marcos, Peru

Objetive The aim of the present study is to analyse the factors related to the scientific production of undergraduate students. Materials and methods: A retrospective, relational study was designed and included 45 students of the Faculty of Dentistry at the National University of San Marcos who had published scientific articles from 2010 to 2017. The students were selected from a manual search of their articles in the databases: Scopus, PubMed, SciELO, LILACS, Google Scholar, and Cochrane. Each student completed a questionnaire that included items to assess the personal, work, academic, and institutional characteristics of each student. Each factor was related to the amount of scientific production. Results: It was found a scientific production of 10%, belonging to a Scientific Society (OR = 0.639 95% CI: 1.61-2.32), having participated in scientific congresses (OR = 0.583 IC95%: 0.65-1.64), having organized academic / scientific events (OR = 0.58 IC95%: 0.83-2.05), having taken courses on scientific writing (OR = 0.088 IC95%: -0.447-0.78), greater time spent on research (OR = 0.64 IC95%: 0.12-1.71) and being recognized by their teachers (OR = 0.88 IC95%: 0.64-1.57) were related to a higher scientific production. Conclusion: Personal and academic factors are mainly related to higher student scientific production, which is why their promotion into the university environment is needed.