Discussion 1: Exploring Scholary Sources and the Walden Library

Discussion 1: Exploring Scholary Sources and the Walden Library

Scholarly information comes from various sources like academic books, encyclopedias, handbooks, and journals. “Scholarly” refers to materials written by and for researchers and scholars, meant for a specific audience. You won’t usually find these in your local bookstore or public library because they cater to a specialized group and are typically housed in university and specialized libraries, not freely accessible online. This is why becoming proficient in using the Walden Library is crucial during your academic journey.

At Walden, you will be primarily focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles, a specific kind of scholarly publication that undergoes a rigorous review process. These articles can present original research or review the work of other researchers.

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When you use the Walden Library to search for peer-reviewed literature to support your discussions and assignments, it’s vital to understand how the Library is organized. Most modern libraries make their materials available electronically through searchable databases. The Walden Library offers access to specialized academic databases, many of which are tailored to psychology and the social and behavioral sciences.

For this week’s Discussion, you will explore the databases within the Walden Library and compare peer-reviewed articles found in these databases to those available online.

To get ready for this Discussion:

1. Go through the Learning Resources for this week and get acquainted with how to navigate the Walden Library, conduct searches in Library databases, and refine your searches to include full-text, peer-reviewed articles, and specific publication dates.
2. Search the “APA PsycINFO database” in the Walden Library and locate a peer-reviewed article on a psychology topic relevant to your program’s specialization.
3. Next, search the internet and find an article related to the same topic.
4. Reflect on the sources of both articles and evaluate each article using the assessment methods outlined in the Learning Resources.

With these thoughts in mind:

By Day 3

Share a concise description of the articles you found. Then, compare and contrast these articles, explaining the differences you observed between them. Elaborate on how using peer-reviewed articles can enhance the strength of your scholarly writing. As a professional in the field of psychology, specify which article you would use as evidence to support your ideas. Provide the article title and journal name for the article you found in the Library and the URL for the article you found online.

Ensure your posts and responses are well-supported with specific references to this week’s Learning Resources.

Take the time to read through some of your colleagues’ posts.

By Day 5

Respond to two of your colleagues and continue the discussion through Day 7. Often, when researching a topic, it leads to the discovery of another interesting article. Choose one of your colleagues’ posts and search the Walden Library databases to find another peer-reviewed article on the same topic as your colleague’s article. Describe the article you found and explain why it might be of interest to your colleague. Include the name of the database where you found it (e.g., APA PsycINFO) and provide the citation to the article in APA format, including the author, publication year, article title, journal title, and volume/issue/page numbers.