Beyond the DOI: Toward a Non-Commercial Persistent Identifier

Context and Problem Latin America faces a critical dependence on centralized persistent identifier (PID) systems, such as DOIs, controlled by costly and geopolitically biased international consortia. This limits the visibility, sovereignty, and equitable access to regional academic production, perpetuating inequalities in the global knowledge ecosystem. Only 20% of objects in Latin American repositories have DOIs due to economic and technical barriers, which fosters a cycle of academic extractivism. Proposed Solution The project seeks to consolidate a federated and decentralized network of sovereign DIPs, based on the successful experience of ARK-CAICYT (Argentina), which integrates national registries (such as the ISSN) into an open, locally authoritative technical framework. The network will promote interoperability, collaborative governance, and alignment with FAIR/CARE principles, ensuring regional control over metadata and infrastructure, without relying on centralized external models