Scholarly information comes from a wide variety of sources including academic books, encyclopedias, handbooks, and journals. “Scholarly” is a broad term for publications written by and for researchers and scholars. These publications are typically not found in your local bookstore or public library because they are written for a very specific audience. They are mostly available in university and specialized libraries, not freely available online. Therefore, it is essential to learn to navigate the Walden Library and use it often!
During your time at Walden, you will be focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles, a specific type of scholarly publication that goes through a specialized review process. These types of articles may report on original research or review the work of other researchers.
As you use the Walden Library to search the peer-reviewed literature to support your Discussion posts and Assignments, it is important to understand how the Library is organized. Most modern libraries make their materials available electronically through searchable databases. Here in the Walden Library, you have access to specialized academic databases, many of which are specific to psychology and the social and behavioral sciences
Of course, there are also online search engines, such as Google Scholar, which can help you identify scholarly resources. However, Google Scholar’s search results may or may not be peer-reviewed, and oftentimes the full text is not available. Since you need to use the Walden Library to verify if an article you found is peer-reviewed, and to obtain the full text, you will save time by using the Library as your primary search tool. Library databases also offer other search features that are not available from free online search engines.
As part of this week’s Discussion, you will explore the databases in the Walden Library and compare and contrast peer-reviewed articles found in these databases to those found online.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
To prepare
- Review this week’s Learning Resources, and then familiarize yourself with navigating the Walden Library, searching the Top Forensic Psychology journals and other relevant Library databases. Limit your searches to full text, peer review, and publication date. Identifying if articles are peer reviewed.
- Search the “APA PsycINFO database” in the Walden Library. Select one peer-reviewed article on a forensic psychology topic that you would like to explore relevant to your area of specialization in your program.
Note: Topics of interest may include victimology, vicarious traumatization, PTSD, stalking, etc. - Next, search the internet for articles related to the same topic. Review and analyze the results, and then select one more article for this Discussion.
Note: Google Scholar, as well as other search engine results, may be scholarly yet not peer reviewed. You need to know how to identify peer-reviewed articles for the academic work in your program and your dissertation. - Reflect on the sources of both articles. Use critical-thinking skills to evaluate each article using the evaluation methods addressed in “Evaluating Resources: Evaluation Methods,” as well as the other Learning Resources this week.
- Complete the Peer-Reviewed Article Checklist document to determine if each article is peer reviewed or not.
BY DAY 3
Post a brief description of each article you found, along with their citations and URLs. Then, address the following:
- Use the Peer-Reviewed Article Checklist document to help you ascertain if the articles are peer reviewed or not. Compare and contrast the two articles, and then further explain, using critical thinking, the differences you noticed between them.
- Explain how the use of peer-review articles can improve the arguments you make in your scholarly writing.
- As a forensic psychology professional, which article would you use as evidence to support your ideas? Why?
Although there is no specific word count required for Discussion posts, a good initial post can typically be expressed in 200–300 words. Regardless of length, posts should be reflective, substantive, and evidence based.
Read your colleagues’ postings.
