Introduction: In today's knowledge society the quality of higher education is directly related to the practice of research. Formative research constitutes a transversal axis of nursing curricula, and its importance lies in the need to form research seedbeds and the construction of knowledge. Objective: To identify the perception of nursing students about formative research in the undergraduate. Methods: Quantitative, descriptive study, cross section. Population: 145 nursing students of second, third and fourth year of studies at the nursing school of the National University of San Marcos. Instrument: a valid and reliable Likert scale. Data were collected between September and August 2018 and were processed using Excel; For descriptive data, descriptive statistics were used. Results: 72.00% on average perceive the inclusion of formative research in studies moderately favorable, 62.00% on the research skills achieved, 61.00% on teaching strategies applied by the teacher, 79.00% regarding its inclusion in the curriculum and student participation in research. A considerable percentage (32.00%) of students with an unfavorable perception of research skills and teaching strategies was also found. Conclusions: Nursing students with a moderately favorable perception of formative research predominated, which would imply establishing new teaching strategies to improve their implementation as a fundamental part of the teaching-learning process.