BACKGROUND Research is crucial for the scientific progress of the health of individuals, communities, and systems. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, motives and barriers among third year and final year dental students. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, motives and barriers toward scientific research among third and final year undergraduate dental students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 100 dental students using a convenience sampling method from various dental colleges. We used a validated self-report questionnaire to collect data and assess the knowledge of, attitude towards and barriers to scientific research RESULTS : Totally 100 participants were taken into consideration with equal distribution of third and final year undergraduate dental students . The third year dental students were not aware of the study design of research protocol; only 2 % of the participants were aware of it . Only final year students were aware of the study design of the research .Similarly the research protocol and the hypothesis was also all final year students was aware of it (50.99%) and only 2% of the third year was aware of the research protocol. 18.54% of the final year students strongly agreed that research should be a part of curriculum. Even though third year students didn’t agree that research should be a part of curriculum , most third year students agreed that it helps in better understanding of the subjects. 24.5% of the third year students said that research is an extra burden , but compared to third years nearly 38.4% of the final years answered that research is an extra burden . The most common personal barriers was found to be lack of Awareness, lack of self interest , no funding for research among third year dental students and it is also strongly agreed by final year dental students CONCLUSION: The undergraduate third and final year students had a moderate level of knowledge and practice in research. More efforts are needed to facilitate scientific dental research including supervisors’ availability and time allocation for research.

Knowledge, attitude, awareness,dental students, innovative analysis