NISO Plus 2024 Global/Online

Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) are an important part of the scholarly ecosystem. However the current global approach to PIDs excludes developing regions and contributes to creating significant inequalities in the scholarly ecosystem. The costs of minting DOIs make them unaffordable in most parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where there are often little or no budgets for these types of services. The consolidation of control within the hands of a few dominant entities in the global north also raises questions about inclusivity and true global representation in governance. This has already become obvious since the current costing models, which were developed by players in developed countries, do not reflect the reality in most developing countries. Furthermore, the narrative being advanced by certain entities that all resources must have a DOI or cannot be considered “trustworthy” is extremely detrimental for developing country researchers in low-resourced environments where DOIs are not an option. This session will present this context and two major initiatives in Africa (WACREN) and Latin America (LA Referencia) that are creating not-for-profit services that will mint PIDs in these regions using ARKs. These initiatives will be financially supported by local organisations and will apply feasible costing models in these regions.