Introduction

Digital research literacy comprises the knowledge and skills required to produce quality research outputs in a digital environment. 

To support university and research libraries that are helping researchers and students to produce quality research outputs, EIFL compiled a training programme outline, which is organized according to the research cycle, and held 12 webinars to support use of the training outline in 2021. The first version of the training programme outline was published in November 2020. The resource is regularly updated to include new topics and materials. 

We would like to acknowledge all the people, organizations and projects whose resources are included in the outline. Our special thanks go to the staff of the University of Dublin College Library, especially Julia Barrett, who helped us to create the first version of this resource.

How can librarians use this resource?

This resource is organized according to the research cycle: Discover, Manage Research Data, Publish, Disseminate and Increase Visibility, and Measure Impact.

Each section gives an overview of the topic, what the trainer should cover, and what the learner should gain by the end of the training. Each topic includes “Resources for facilitators and learners”, with useful material that trainers and learners can use to improve their own knowledge or use in their own training. 

We encourage you to become familiar with this training programme and to adapt and use relevant topics to train librarians, students and researchers. In addition to using the content provided in this training programme, we suggest you follow the recommendations below on how to plan, organize and evaluate your training.

• Guide “Training Methodologies”, Gender and Technology Institute.
• Guide “Training evaluation”, Mind Tools.
• “The Open Science Training Handbook”, sections “On Learning and Training”, “Organizational Aspects” and “Examples and Practical Guidance”, p.90-169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2587951
• FAIR Training Handbook
• EIFL Open Science train-the-trainer course materials. 

If you would like to suggest new content and resources for consideration, please contact us at: info@eifl.net 

You can also download a printable version of the EIFL Digital Research Literacy Training Programme Outline for Librarians.

Table of contents

DISCOVER

• Find your topic and review literature
• Search Google and Google Scholar
• Free discovery tools and platforms
• Manage your references
• Keep up to date on your topic

MANAGE RESEARCH DATA

• Managing and sharing research data
• Writing a data management plan (DMP)

PUBLISH

• Academic integrity
• Choosing effective publishing strategy
• Using Open Access (OA) routes to increase research impact

DISSEMINATE AND INCREASE VISIBILITY

• Institutional repository
• Preprints
• Persistent identifiers for research outputs, researchers and institutions: DOIs, ORCID and ROR
• Social media for research

MEASURE IMPACT

• Introduction to research metrics 
• Make your work count

This guide is conceived as a living resource and your feedback is welcome. If you want to suggest new elements, tips and resources, please contact us at: oa@eifl.net. You can download a PDF version of the guide here.  It can also be downloaded from Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10665584

September 2025

This work is licensed under licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License