JPA Implementation Patterns: Field Access vs. Property Access

JPA Implementation Patterns: Field Access vs. Property Access: "I will continue the JPA implementation patterns series by discussing the relative merits of field access vs. property access.
The JPA specification allows two ways for the persistence provider
to access the persistent state of an entity. The persistence provider
can either invoke JavaBeans style property accessors (getters and
setters) or access the instance fields of the entity directly...."

(Via Javalobby Front Page.)