Microsoft to go to ‘open access' for its researchers' publications

Even as Microsoft holds out against releasing its main products as open source, its Microsoft Research arm is moving towards open access for its researchers' publications.

“Microsoft Research is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible because we recognise the benefits that accrue to scholarly enterprises from such wide dissemination, including more thorough review, consideration and critiques, and a general increase in scientific, scholarly and critical knowledge," the company’s open access policy reads.

Peter Lee, head of Microsoft Research, discussed three main motivations for basic research at Microsoft in a recent interview: "The first relates to an aspiration to advance human knowledge, the second derives from a culture that relies deeply on the ambitions of individual researchers, and the last concerns promoting open publication of all research results and encouraging deep collaborations with academic researchers."