See Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Articles for information about what's meant by the terms "scholarly" and "peer-reviewed," instructions about how to find scholarly/peer-reviewed articles, and guidance on how to tell whether a particular article is scholarly/peer-reviewed.
See Creating Database Alerts for information about how to set up search, table of contents, and citation alerts in order to be automatically notified by e-mail or RSS feed when new content meeting your specifications has been added to various UMGC Library databases.
You may also want to consult the APA's guidance for Adapting a Dissertation or Thesis Into a Journal Article.