ARKs: 15.3 Billion Persistent Identifiers and Counting

Archival Resource Key (ARK) Alliance

The ARK Alliance is an open global community supporting Archival Resource Keys (ARKs), persistent identifiers that serve as stable, trusted references for information objects. Since 2001, over 1,700 organizations—libraries, data centers, archives, museums, publishers, and more—have created 15.3 billion ARKs. Unlike DOIs, ARKs are cheaper, more flexible, and less centralized, allowing unlimited identifiers without payment, any metadata, and direct linking to content. They support research and scholarship, appearing in Wikipedia and ORCiD profiles.