US scientists back bill for free access to publicly funded science research

A star studded group of US doctors and scientists is supporting legislation for publicly funded research to be made available free by “open access” on the internet, an initiative spearheaded by the Public Library of Science, a non-profit organisation (http://www.plos.org/).

Martin Sabo, a Democrat from the US state of Minnesota, has introduced legislation to the House of Representatives to prevent publicly funded researchers gaining copyright protection for their papers. Instead, under the proposed Public Access to Science Act, reports of research largely funded by taxpayers would be in the public domain.

Mr Sabo told the New York …