Student APO Newsletter
What is an Academic Practice Officer (APO)?
A person in the School who hears cases of bad academic practice and academic offences.
The APO for our School is Graham Basten (Associate Head).
Protecting your marks: The APO will also ensure that all cases are dealt with fairly across the School. If you receive a piece of assessed work that has had it's mark reduced but you did not have an e-mail from the APO or an APO hearing, then please contact the APO as soon as possible as your work can only be reduced in mark by recommendation by the APO.
What is the Academic Offences Panel (AOP)?
If the case is too serious to be heard by an APO they will go a panel – the penalties from the panel are generally much greater than that given from an APO
Where are the rules?
It is really important that you read the rules about bad academic practice and academic offences as these could have serious implications on your study:
What is Bad Academic Practice?
• Please follow this link for details Bad Academic Practice
What is an Academic Offence?
• Please follow this link for details Academic Offences
What are the penalties from an APO?
This link explains the penalties you can expect (chapter 4): DMU Registrar
What is turnitin?
Turnitin is a software that checks your submitted work against all known work for similarities.
Self help courses:
If you are still unsure the following are excellent resources:
http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/tutorials/plagiarism_tutorial/
http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/resources/good-practice-guide
The following information is provided by the Clinical Sciences Library Officer Paul Cavanagh:
What should be referenced?:
You must acknowledge and credit the work of another individual or organisation used within your assignments, including:
• Published material, either in print or online, e.g.
– Books
– Articles in journals
– Information on websites
• Non-written works, e.g.
– Presentations and lecture notes – use with caution! Use published information where possible
• Other people’s work, e.g.
– The work of other DMU students, students at another institution or contracted third parties
For more information, please see the How To Avoid Plagiarism guide
For the avoiding plagiarism information, I’ve distinguished between accidental or unintentional plagiarism (where sources haven’t been cited or referenced properly) and deliberate and intentional plagiarism (where sources have deliberately been presented as the author’s own ideas).
Avoiding plagiarism and bad academic practice:
• “Plagiarism can be defined as the significant use of other people's work and the submission of it as though it were one's own in assessed coursework”
– “Bad Academic Practice can be:
– Accidental: low level duplication without citation for example errors made through carelessness or misunderstanding
– Deliberate: the passing off of ideas, data or other information as if originally discovered by the student.”
Taken from DMU Academic Regulations
