Science academy defends open access policy.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, today hit back at critics of its "negative" attitude to making research freely available on the internet, claiming it was under attack from commercial interests.

A letter signed by 46 society fellows, including two Nobel laureates, criticised the academy for opposing open access agreements, under which scientists agree to make their findings freely available on the internet as well as publishing them in academic journals.

The letter had been coordinated by BioMed Central, a commercial publisher of open access journals, which stood to gain from open access publishing, …