6_-_Elsevier_EV-_Sole_Source_Justification(REDACTED).pdf

Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition

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NOTE: If a Justification and Approval was approved for the preceding acquisition, a copy of the approved J&A for the predecessor action must be included in the staff package for approval of the instant J&A. This applies to J&A staff packages that are submitted for review and approval at a level above the contracting officer. The predecessor J&A will be used as a reference document by the approving official.

Choose the funding level for this J&A Document:

< $700K > $700K and < $13.5M > $13.5M and < $93M > $93M

Contracting Activity: AFLCMC/PZIE

Purchase Request / Local ID Number:

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): ELSEVIER - ENGINEERING VILLAGE

Program Type (PEO or Other Contracting): NASIC

Authority (include full title):

FAR 13.106-1(b) Soliciting from a single source & 13.501(a) Sole Source Acquisitions

Estimated Contract Cost (including options): J&A Type: Class Individual

COORDINATION (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

Signature

APPROVAL (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

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I. Contracting Activity.

This justification and approval to request authority for Other Than Full and Open Competition supports requirements generated for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Library Council organization. The contracting activity for this requirement is the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Installation Contracting Division (AFLCMC/PZIE). The purchase request number supporting this contract action is

II. Nature and/or description of the action being processed.

Due to the circumstances described herein, the activity requests authority to acquire electronic access to the Engineering Village database from Elsevier using Other Than Full and Open Competition as prescribed by FAR 13.106-1(b) Soliciting from a single source & 13.501(a) Sole Source Acquisitions. This individual action will result in the award of a new Firm Fixed Price contract. This sole source requirement will be acquired from the following organization:

Elsevier, Inc.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs.

a. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is the U.S. Air Force's only organization wholly dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of warfighting technologies for America's air, space, and cyberspace forces. Because AFRL projects cover such a vast spectrum of science and engineering topics, it is very difficult to predict from where the need for information will arise. Therefore, AFRL requires access to a comprehensive and authoritative source of scientific publications, citations, and references in the broad field of aerospace engineering.

b. The proposed action will be awarded as a new contract and is to acquire access to the Compendex, Inspec, NTIS, and Ei-Patents databases on the Elsevier Engineering Village [EV] platform. This is the website from where these databases can be accessed and a search engine used to find information by topic, journal title, author, keywords, etc. EV is a very robust database with the functionality required by AFRL scientists and engineers. EV has four components - Compendex, Inspec, NTIS, and Ei-Patents. EV has tremendous functionality and detail which allows AFRL scientists and engineers to quickly and thoroughly cover decades of information in minutes. The EV display allows for different sorts to analyze the information in many ways or to follow citation trails that lead to other related topics. Additionally, only the EV platform can we make use of the Engineering Index backfiles, which allows access to information published as far back as 1884. EV thus has the depth and breadth required by AFRL S&Es.

c. The EV database allows AFRL S&Es to link seamlessly to the full-text of peer-reviewed scientific papers from all of the publishers with which we have a license. Elsevier is one of the premier science publishers and such are a necessity for the work of AFRL. Through the EV platform, these publications are accessible to all AFRL Scientists and Engineers S&Es at their desktop. The type of appropriation that will

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d. Total cost for annual publications:

Base Year:

IV. Statutory authority permitting Other than Full and Open Competition.

13.106(b), Soliciting from a single source 13.501(a), Sole Source acquisitions

V. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or nature of the acquisition requires the use of the authority cited above (applicability of authority).

a. Elsevier offers a highly specialized, copyrighted product, having been in the scientific publishing business for over 100 years. The company has built a reputation for quality and authoritativeness due to forward-thinking database development. EV has unique functionality and capabilities that AFRL cannot acquire from another source. Only through EV can you search the INSPEC archive simultaneously with Compendex and the Compendex archive, NTIS, and Ei-Patents. This gives a depth of coverage back to the science of the 19th century that cannot be rivaled in any competing databases. Combined with this depth, the EV display allows for different sorts to parse the information in many ways or to follow citation trails that lead to other related topics. Elsevier's comprehensive collection of copyrighted product and robust search engine allows the labs to conduct thorough literature searches required to ensure research and development dollars are not spent on duplicative efforts.

b. Elsevier is the only source of the well-developed databases and comprehensive collection of copyrighted material AFRL requires to accomplish their research mission. Scientific databases with the depth and comprehensiveness of EV allow AFRL S&Es to access historical works of eminent scientists and trace the development of scientific discoveries, upon which all current science is built. The loss of access to this information would have severe negative impacts to the scientific research. Because of copyright laws, none of the databases owned by Elsevier could ever be provided by another company. Additionally, a competitor would have to gain rights to the papers currently solely collected and maintained by Elsevier.

Historically, Elsevier has not allowed the copyrights to be purchased by another source.

c. Without this sole source acquisition, AFRL researchers will be forced to conduct time-consuming literature searches in print volumes from their site's library's existing collection, risking the use of dated information. For those items not currently held in the individual AFRL libraries' collections, staff must attempt to borrow the volumes from outside libraries. Having up-to-date, real-time access to this database will ensure research and development dollars are not spent on wasteful, duplicative efforts. The information contained in these electronic journals is one of a kind research critical to the overall AFRL mission.

VI. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable.

A pre-solicitation intent to award sole source synopsis was accomplished requesting any interested firms to

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VII. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

In accordance with FAR 13.106-3(a), the Contacting Officer shall determine that the proposed price is fair and reasonable. The basis of this determination is based on FAR 13.106-3(ii) and FAR 13.106-3(iii). This has been previously procured by AFLCMC/PZI for the AFRL library council and the price shall be verified against Elsevier's current price lists, catalogs, or advertisements and by comparison to prices previously paid.

VIII. Description of the market research conducted and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

a. As described in Section VI above, market research, in accordance with FAR Part 10, was conducted by synopsis of the proposed acquisition, advising industry of the pending acquisition and soliciting inquiries from interested parties.

b. AFRL closely monitors other organizations whose goal is to foster competitive titles. AFRL monitors the impact of the journals from various publishers through http://www.journalprices.com/. Scientific journals are assigned an impact factor which gauges the impact of a particular journal based on how often it is cited by other scientists. This and other websites allow AFRL to gauge the ability of other publishers to provide the technical information contained in the copyrighted Elsevier - Engineering Village subscription.

To date, the Elsevier subscription provides the sole resource for the data contained in their database;

however, AFRL continually monitors their performance as well as other publications' potential to provide scientific information.

IX. Any other facts supporting the use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

None.

X. List of sources, if any, that expressed interest in the acquisition.

Elsevier, Inc.

XI. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required.

Steps that will be taken to remove barriers to competition include encouraging scientists and engineers to publish in other than Elsevier databases and publications; supporting Open Access (allowing anyone in the world access to articles for free) initiatives and developing institutional repositories where scientists would self-archive and make their research more widely available.

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XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

The contracting officer's signature on the Coordination and Approval Document evidences that he/she has determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of his/her knowledge and belief in accordance with FAR 13.501(a)(1)(ii).

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by their signatures on the Coordination and Approval Document, the technical and/or requirements personnel have certified that any supporting data contained herein which is their responsibility is both accurate and complete in accordance with FAR 13.501(a)(1)(ii).