Barriers and limitations to publishing undergraduate theses and factors influencing the intention to publish among new medical graduates from Peruvian universities

Introduction: Scientific research works, including theses, must be published in a scientific journal in order to be considered as a contribution to the academic community. Objectives: To identify the barriers and limitations to publishing undergraduate theses in indexed scientific journals encountered by new medical graduates from Peruvian universities and to determine the factors associated with their intention to publish. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study conducted in 167 physicians who graduated in 2021 from 7 Peruvian universities and answered an online questionnaire asking about general data, perceived barriers to publish the thesis, and intention to publish the thesis in a scientific journal. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) were calculated using Poisson regression models to identify the factors associated with the intention to publish. Results: The questionnaire response rate was 39.57% (167/422 physicians graduated in 2021). Participants’ median age was 25 years (P25-75=24-27) and 55.09% were women. 42.52% of the participants intended to publish their undergraduate thesis (28.74% reported having the intention to do so, 11.38% were in the process of publishing it, and 2.40% had already published it in a scientific journal). The most commonly reported barriers to thesis publication were insufficient knowledge about how to make a submission to a scientific journal (71.85%) and lack of access to advisors with expertise in scientific research (68.26%). In the adjusted Poisson regression model, it was observed that the older the age, the lower the intention to publish (aPR: 0.62; 95%CI: 0.51-0.75). Conclusion: The thesis publication rate was low and less than half of the physicians had the intention to publish their thesis. The most commonly reported barriers to publication were lack of knowledge about how to make a submission to a scientific journal and lack of access to experienced research advisors. Being older was associated with a lower intention to publish the undergraduate thesis.