The Royal Society is beginning a new, major policy study on the use of scientific information. It will ask how scientific information should be managed to best support innovative and productive research that reflects public values. The project, Science as a public enterprise, has launched a call for evidence. A Town Hall meeting was held in June.

The study will look at questions such as:

• What are the benefits and risks of openly sharing scientific data?
• How does the rise of the blogosphere change scientific research?
• What responsibility should scientists, their institutions and the funders of research have for open data?
• How do we make information more accessible and who will pay to do it?
• Should privately funded scientists be held to the same standards as those who are publicly funded?
• How do we balance openness against intellectual property rights and in the case of medical information how do we protect patient confidentiality?
• Will the same rules apply to scientists across the world?

Find out more about the project from the press release.