Background Peru is considered the South American country with the lowest projection of scientific production in 2015, a strategy to reverse this situation is to keep the interest in research through participation in scientific societies of medical students. Objective To Determine the scientific research interest in medical students and their variation by sex and academic cycles. Method Cross-sectional study, conducted in 341 medical students from the Universidad Nacional San Luis Gonzaga de Ica, Peru. All participants received a questionnaire designed to collect information on the interest in drafting, participation, scientific publishing, and the interest to make a career in research in the future. Results Students showed a high interest in scientific research (>80%), however, when we asked if they wanted to make a career in research in the future, only 53.9% responded affirmatively. This interest decreases according increasing the academic cycles (p = 0.0532), and is higher in women (p = 0.1623). When grouped in preclinical and clinical sciences academic cycles the interest in participating in sciences events among clinical was lower (p = 0.0199). Women showed a high interest in writing scientific papers (p = 0.0031). Conclusions Medical students showed a high interest in scientific research, however, this decreases with the increasing of academic cycles.