Under new guidelines issued this week by the research councils, research grant holders from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Economics and Social Research Council will have to put their research results in open-access repositories from October 2006.
The Council for the Central Laboratories of the Research Councils "strongly encourages" researchers to do the same.
In a statement, the councils confirm their commitment to making publicly funded research available and accessible to the public as rapidly as possible.
Details: www.rcuk.ac.uk/access