Introduction:

Health science professionals present problems for the elaboration of scientific research articles, even though this activity should be part of their professional practice. So far, no formal studies have been carried out to determine what the drawbacks to developing this competence are.

Objective:

To describe the difficulties for the elaboration of scientific research articles faced by postgraduate students in health sciences.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was carried out by means of conducting an anonymous survey with 148 postgraduate health students from two public universities in La Paz City, using a structured questionnaire for each training program. The characteristics of the factors involved in the elaboration of research articles were analyzed through descriptive and multivariate inferential analysis using logistic regression. Different factors were considered, such as gender, specialty or master studies, origin of the participants, and teaching practice.

Results:

It was found that not teaching was a greater probability limiting scientific publication in pharmacists (OR 7.6, CI 3.71-17.1, p = 0), biochemicals (OR 13.3, CI 6, 17-31.92; p = 0), and physicians (OR 2.7, CI 1.10-6.82; p = 0.05).

Conclusions:

In health professionals, such as pharmacists, biochemists and physicians, not teaching is associated with greater difficulty in preparing research articles.

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