A recent blog published by London School of Economics suggests that UK think tanks are not exploiting the full potential of Twitter as part of their work.  According to the blog, only a minority of UK think tanks use Twitter and where it is used, it is employed mainly by younger men (who also work as journalists, commentators or bloggers) and in ways that fail to take advantage of the opportunities to exchange ideas and provoke discussion.  This, the blog argues, may be why think tanks are not reaching out to broader audiences or to engage the wider public in topical debates as a means of promoting their ideas and arguments.

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From 1 July 2012, all World Bank research outputs and knowledge products will be made open access.  The policy will also apply to Bank research published with third party publishers including the institution's two journals - World Bank Research Observer (WBRO) and World Bank Economic Review (WBER) - which are published by Oxford University Press. While much of the Bank's research outputs and knowledge products have been available for free on the institution's web site, and on other channels, the new Open Access policy means that for the first time, the Bank will have an aggregated portal to research and knowledge products where the metadata is curated, the content is discoverable and easily downloaded, and third parties are free to use, reuse, and build on it.

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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. Researchers who do not make their work open access in line with the Wellcome Trust's policy to make all research papers available online could be sanctioned in future grant applications to the charity.

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