BBC News has published an article by Internet law professor Michael Geist which takes a look at a fundamental shift in the way research journals become available to the public.

Last month five leading European research institutions launched a petition that called on the European Commission to establish a new policy that would require all government-funded research to be made available to the public shortly after publication. That requirement - called an open access principle - would leverage widespread internet connectivity with low-cost electronic publication to create a freely available virtual scientific library available to the entire globe.

The article gives a fair introduction to Open Access and Institutional Repositories….such exposure to a large audience can only be a good thing! The University of Southampton and Brunel University School of Information Systems are mentioned as the only two UK universities to establish both a repository and a policy requesting that faculty submit electronic copies of all publications.

Read the full article here.