One of the world's largest funders of science is to throw its weight behind a growing campaign to break the stranglehold of academic journals and allow all research papers to be shared online.
Nearly 9,000 researchers have already signed up to a boycott of journals that restrict free sharing as part of a campaign dubbed the "academic spring" by supporters due to its potential for revolutionising the spread of knowledge.
Sir Mark Walport, chief executive of the Wellcome Trust, told the Today programme's James Naughtie that there is a revolution going on in scientific communication due to the internet and the Wellcome Trusty wants to make scientific research available to everyone.
