Prepare: Prior to beginning work on this assignment, view the videos Scholarly and Popular Sources(1) (Links to an external site.), Why Can’t I Just Google?, (Links to an external site.) and Effective Internet Search: Basic Tools and Advanced Strategies (Links to an external site.).
Reflect: Good research is a combination of many types of sources. Prior to taking this course, did you understand the differences between these sources and the importance of finding one type of resource over another?
Write: For this discussion, you will address the following prompts:
- Explain at least five differences between popular and scholarly sources used in research.
- Locate and summarize one peer-reviewed, scholarly source from the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and one popular source that pertain to your Final Paper topic. In your summary of each article, comment on the following: biases, reliability, strengths, and limitations.
- From the sources you summarized, list and explain at least five visual cues from the peer-reviewed, scholarly source that were not evident in the popular source.
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length, which should include a thorough response to each prompt. You are required to provide in-text citations of applicable required reading materials and/or any other outside sources you use to support your claims. Provide full reference entries of all sources cited at the end of your response. Please use correct APA format when writing in-text citations (see In-Text Citation Helper (Links to an external site.)) and references (see Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)).
Respond to Peers: Review your classmates’ posts, and respond to at least two peers by Day 7. In your responses, review at least one of the articles provided by your peer and expand on their description. Each participation post should be a minimum of 75 words.
Reply:
Cindy WelchYesterdayAug 17 at 3:07pm
Week 3
Discussion 2
Explain at least five differences between popular and scholarly sources used in research.
Scholarly sources commonly come in the form of academic journals and books. Experts in their field write these articles or books, reporting on original findings with the authors’ credentials and references included. Scholarly sources often are written in academic language, have technical information and jargon, and usually include graphs or tables. Scholarly sources often have an abstract, summary, findings, discussion, and conclusion (von Winckelmann, 2015). Most but not all scholarly sources are peer-reviewed.
Popular sources are found as blog posts, online websites, newspapers, and magazines. The authors of popular sources can be experts on the topic. The language is more common and can be understood by the general public. The length of the article is shorter and may or may not include references. Online articles typically will have an embedded link within the article to points to its references. It is common to see popular sources on online news platforms such as The New York Times or Harvard Business Review (von Winckelmann, 2015). These types of sources are considered nonscholarly but can still be credible. Utilizing scholarly and popular sources can provide a varying degree of expert information and insight to your research project.
Locate and summarize one peer-reviewed, scholarly source from the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and one popular source that pertain to your Final Paper topic. In your summary of each article, comment on the following: biases, reliability, strengths, and limitations.
Peer-Reviewed Article:
The peer-reviewed journal article was found in the library titled “Education and Health: Redrawing the Preston Curve” from 2018 by authors Wolfgang Lutz and Endale Kebede. This article expands on a 1975 article authored by Samuel Preston that focused on the relationship between mortality and level of economic development, which leads to subsequent studies focusing on income as the most significant driver of mortality decline (Lutz & Kebede, 2018). The authors decided to redraw the Preston curve substituting Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person with mean years of schooling. This study demonstrated that educational attainment is a better predictor of better health outcomes (Lutz & Kebede, 2018). Thus, while higher-income has been shown better health, higher incomes are associated with higher levels of education.
I initially thought that the bias in the article would be that income is a driving factor in health outcomes, and it is assumed globally that the primary socioeconomic influencer of income attainment was education. However, the authors performed a significant multivariate analysis that thoroughly compared Preston’s hypothesis of GDP and health and their hypothesis that education is a better influencer on health than income. I was unable to uncover any bias in the article. Reliability was demonstrated, especially where simultaneous influences of income and education were inferred when the cause needs to precede effect. Thus, the time of education can lapse for decades and still produce better health (Lutz & Kebede, 2018).
The study’s strengths were that the authors plotted the same type of relationship data of the original Preston article by replacing GDP with mean years of schools, allowing for comparative analysis. Additionally, the authors added infant mortality as a separate analysis to confirm the overall hypothesis as this data is readily available. However, they were limited in reproducing the same comparison for adult mortality as data availability was difficult and often not reported globally, specifically the adult income and education metrics. Nevertheless, a strong article in support of educational attainment resulting in better health outcomes.
Popular Source Article:
The popular source article found on Huffington Post online news website titled: Want to Be Happier and Healthier? Then Go to College was authored by Jamie Merisotis. The author is the president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, which is committed to making learning beyond high school obtainable for all. He has a political science degree from Bates College, is a past president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and has numerous board and trustee positions (Lumina Foundation, n.d.). These qualifications support the authors’ expertise in the field of education. The article cited a study published by the University of Maine that college graduates have a life expectancy of seven years longer than those who hold a high school diploma and report better health, 44% more than their non-graduate peers (Trostel, 2015). The article demonstrates that the barrier to educational attainment is the cost of higher education is difficult in low-income and minority populations, producing inequality in these communities (Merisotis, 2016).
The bias in the article is that there are undeniable benefits of higher education, which is the primary message. Additionally, the main supporting research for the article was published by the author’s company. Nevertheless, the reliability of the information is thoroughly supported when the referenced article, with authors that are experts in their field and information supported with multiple references. The strength of the article is that his opinion can be supported by research. However, the limitation is that the research findings were limited to one article and a mention of a survey which would require further investigation into the article’s linked reference support and to identify the survey and subsequent results. Nevertheless, this popular source provides some useful information and location of additional sources for my research topic.
From the sources, you summarized, list, and explain at least five visual cues from the peer-reviewed, scholarly source that were not evident in the popular source.
The five visual cues noted in the peer-reviewed scholarly source that was not noted in the popular source include formal presentation and language, several pages in length, data graphs and tables, and an extensive reference list. The article has an introduction paragraph that is the abstract and sub-headers that outline the data, method, analysis, and conclusion. The article was obtained from the UACG library, located in the PubMed database. These visual cues support the article as a scholarly source.
References
Lumina Foundation. (n.d.). Our leader- Jamie Merisotis. https://www.luminafoundation.org/news/president-and-ceo/ (Links to an external site.)
Lutz, W., & Kebede, E. (2018). Education and health: Redrawing the Preston curve. Population and Development Review, 44(2), 343-361. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12141 (Links to an external site.)
Merisotis, J. (2016, October 15). Want to be happier and healthier? Then go to college. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/want-to-be-happier-and-he_b_8288354 (Links to an external site.)
Trostel, P. (2015). It’s not just the money: The benefits of college education to individuals and to society. Lumina Foundation. org/resources/its-not-just-the-money” title=’https://www.luminafoundation.org/resources/its-not-just-the-money<span class=”screenreader-only” style=”box-sizing: border-box;”><span> </span>(Links to an external site.)</span>’>https://www.luminafoundation.org/resources/its-not-just-the-money (Links to an external site.)
von Winckelmann, S. (2015). Information literacy in the digital age. Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUGEN103.15.2/sections/copyright (Links to an external site.)
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