NISS 36C24526Q0320.docx

Special Notice Special Notice

GENERAL INFORMATION

VAMC (688)

50 Irving Street NW Washington DC 20422

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contract Specialist Naana Owusu-Ansah naana.owusu-ansah@va.gov

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

DESCRIPTION

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Network Contracting Office 5, is issuing this Notice of Intent to Sole Source in order to identify any potential sources that have the resources and capabilities to provide the services described in the Statement of Work below.

The government is contemplating a base plus four option periods, Firm Fixed Price contract to satisfy this requirement and meet the needs of The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Health Outcomes Military Exposures (HOME).

INTERESTED & CAPABLE RESPONSES

NCO 5 is seeking responses from businesses that are interested in this procurement and consider themselves to have the resources, rights, and capabilities necessary to provide these services.

Please respond with your:

· Business name

· Business type

· Socio-economic status (e.g., Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, Disadvantaged Small Business, 8(a), etc.)

· Point of contact (including name, telephone number & email address)

· GSA Contract number if applicable

· SAM UEI number

· Capability statement

· Authorized Distributor Letter

Responses must be submitted by 5:00 PM (EDT) Friday, March 6, 2026. Responses to the information requested above may be submitted via email to naana.owusu-ansah@va.gov . No telephone calls will be accepted.

DISCLAIMERS

This Notice of Intent to Sole Source does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this notice that is marked proprietary will be handled accordingly in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e). Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses incurred associated with responding to this RFI.

This Special Notice of Intent to Sole Source is for planning purposes ONLY. The results of this notice will assist in the development of (1) the requirement, and (2) the acquisition strategy (e.g., small business set-aside, full and open competition, etc.). VA assumes no responsibility for any costs incurred associated with the preparation of responses submitted as a result of this notice.

STATEMENT OF WORK

A. General Information

1.0 Introduction:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Health Outcomes Military Exposures (HOME) Program requires an existing, commercial, off-the-shelf, web-based electronic subscription to Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), which will be made available to all HOME staff and employees.

2.0 Background:

Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) is an advanced scientific research database that provides a comprehensive online index to articles from major journals in all areas of science and technology. SCIE is a trusted citation index database with over 61 million records. SCIE interconnected web platform cover-to-cover indexing makes search efficient to find authors, affiliation data, subject classification, and reverse linking to reference citation in journal article. SCIE fully indexes over 9,500 major journals across 182 scientific disciplines and over 1.1 billion cited references dating back to 1900. It is also a base module required to access other Clarivate products.

Capabilities include:

a. Comprehensive user search interface: one-click search on authors, group authors, editors, and source repositories to view all records in the database by selected item.

b. Comprehensive scope of coverage; citations connected to articles in published journals, books, and conference proceedings.

c. Abstracting and indexing of all relevant literature and data sets

d. Comprehensive records: records containing standard bibliographic metadata such as author, abstract, keywords, descriptor terms, and more. Records may include cited references and citing article counts.

3.0 Scope of Work:

a. The contractor shall provide all HOME employees with online access to a single online, web-based subscription to Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE). Authentication shall be through IP address validation on a network gateway basis, and username/password when IP access is not available.

b. The contractor shall provide an unrestricted number of simultaneous users with immediate access from any web-enabled computer within HOME. It is required that all authorized remote users with VPN access have access to the product.

c. The contractor shall assure the requirements listed in paragraphs 5, Information Scope, 6, Information Quality, 7, Usability, and 8, Access, Content, Support, are addressed.

4.0 Performance Period: One (1) year from date of award, plus four (4) one (1) year option periods to be exercised at the discretion of the Government.

5.0 Information Scope: The contractor shall assure the product includes:

a. Knowledge-based information covering science and technology topics.

b. Citations from the world's leading journals of science and technology.

c. Comprehensive information in a single product available for stand-alone purchase or license, independent of complementary or companion products offered by the contractor.

6.0 Information Quality: The contractor shall assure:

a. Information is accurate, authoritative, and relevant.

b. Authors and sources are well-recognized subject experts in their fields.

c. Policies for determining validity and standards for inclusion of material are well described.

7.0 Usability: The contractor shall assure:

a. Navigation within the system is logical and is easy to use.

b. The product has “user friendly” help and direction aids.

c. Technical, accessibility, and work stoppage issues to Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) are preferably resolved in 24 hours, or the least amount of time to lessen operational impact.

8.0 Access, Content, Support: The contractor shall assure:

a. Product is 508 compliant (http://www.section508.gov/). If product is not 508 compliant, the contractor shall describe measures being taken to bring product into compliance and date. Within 12 months of contract award, that product will be 508 compliant. Or, if product is not 508 compliant, the contractor shall describe why no work is being done to make it 508 compliant.

b. The product is compatible with Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and with most other standard web browsers, which have cookies enabled. To ensure privacy, the product uses session cookies rather than persistent cookies.

c. All site content and support of the web site is the responsibility of the contractor. This includes tech support to VHA users nationwide.

d. System downtime is minimal and VA project manager is notified when such occurs.

e. Information is easily printed.

f. A single point of contact for customer service issues is assigned to VA HOME.

g. Questions are responded to within two (2) business days.

h. Usage statistics are available to the system administrator on an enterprise and IP level.

i. The product is accessible via a variety of personal mobile devices including Apple and Android devices.

Special Notice