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The aim of the study is to analyze the perceptions of belief-in-importance (BI), self-efficacy (SE) and preferred source of learning (SL) of information literacy (IL) competencies among psychology students in Spain and Portugal.

Unified protocol was based on the questionnaire IL-HUMASS (26 items). Quantitative diagnostic-comparative study was carried out, including factor and variance analysis. Hypothesis compliance was checked.

By country, there are no significant differences in students' perceptions, although the scores in BI are higher than in SE. By category, there are some significant differences, and the least valued is that of processing. By individual competency, seven of them show differences between countries. Learning preferences are for a mix of classroom and autonomous learning. Students barely realize the value of libraries. Within factor structures, which share the same components in each dimension, some emerging factors do appear.

Motivation (BI and SE) with respect to IL competencies is a key asset for future psychologists. Interest should focus on some emerging motivational factors. Students' appreciation of the library should enhance through the corresponding initiatives for improvement. This method could be complemented by qualitative studies.

This is probably the first diagnostic-comparative study on perceptions of IL competencies among future psychology professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the informational behavior of a group of future professionals in the field of social sciences (SS), in terms of their competence in the communication–dissemination of information.

The IL-HUMASS, EVALCI/KN and EVALCI/SK tests regarding the affective (attitudes, motivations) and cognitive (knowledge, skills) dimensions are distributed to a stratified sample of five universities and eight degree courses in Spain. Infographics and non-parametric methods allow to compare the disciplinary profiles with regard to gender, academic course and academic degrees. An Information Literacy Communication synthetic indicator based on structural equation modeling includes the subjective and effective dimensions to measure the holistic learning outcomes in communication–dissemination of information.

Significant differences regarding the informational behavior of future professionals in SS are discovered. The synthetic indicator allows academic degrees to be ranked in order to identify those in need of initiatives aimed at improving communication–dissemination competence.

Findings must be taken into account to design effective learning programs. This methodological approach can be expanded to scientific and academic environments.

The paper puts forward the first evidence-based study on communication–dissemination competence among future SS professionals, as no similar research has been found in the scientific literature. It is also the first time that the definition of a predictive performance indicator, based on a powerful statistical methodology, has been proposed.

Digital literacy is not the mere ability to use a digital device or know to use various software. It is a domain of exploration for sociology, psychology, education and, of course, technology. This study aims to present a quantitative analysis of the literature on digital literacy using a bibliometric approach.

Using data from the Web of Science database, the importance of the research is evaluated by reviewing 2307 publications and examining the yearly publication, field category productivity, citation structure, most cited resources, documents, most-cited authors, most productive authors, and country in the field of digital literacy. Further, a cluster analysis is conducted to see the most recurrent keywords and emerging trends in this field. At last, the authors analyzed the thematic progression of keywords over these five years based on the normalized citations. Additionally, a graphical representation of the bibliometric data using VOSviewer is presented in the paper.

The results suggest a steady rate of publication in this field, with most of the research published in education and library fields and the USA leading the country in this realm. The emerging themes in this field are ‘Fake News’, ‘Competence’, ‘Educational Technology’, ‘Health Literacy’, ‘Self-Efficacy’ and, interestingly, ‘COVID-19’. The results also revealed that COVID-19 has been examined and associated with fake news, higher education, social media and information literacy.

This paper provides an overall summary of the most recent research work published from 2017 to 2021 on digital literacy in the backdrop of COVID-19. The study presents the thematic progression over the years and particularly the new keywords that emerged in the limelight of the pandemic. It contributes by updating the existing body of knowledge in the field of digital literacy and presents preliminary results related to COVID-19.