The relationship between research and professional practice, often described in terms of a ‘gap’, is a topical issue involving stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. Within the area of information literacy it is increasingly emphasized that practitioners make use of research and that research is conducted on problems relevant to practice. From a wide perspective, this paper discusses and identifies in the information literacy literature three different strands relating to research, practice and policy-making for information literacy. On the basis of a small-scale bibliometric investigation of samples of literature representing the identified strands, it is concluded that interconnections between the strands are weak. The results of the bibliometric study are discussed in the light of previous research on the relationship between research and practice. It is proposed that the research-based discussion on research and practice would benefit from a more nuanced terminology and by abandoning the prevailing gap-metaphor.