6_-_IOP_-_Sole_Source_Justification(2015-12-16)-redacted.pdf

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

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

Contracting Activity: AFLCMC/PZIE, Wright-Patterson AFB

Purchase Request / Local ID Number:

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS (IOP) – IOPSCIENCE

Program Type (PEO or Other Contracting): AFRL

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 (A F F A R S 5 3 0 6 . 3 0 4 ( a) ) ** The text in the signature blocks below is editable, including the title.

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APPROVAL (A F F A R S 5 3 0 6 . 3 0 4 ( a) ) ** The text in the signature blocks below is editable, including the title.

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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.

Date

Date

Note 1: See guidance at the end of this document for completing the following sections.

Note 2: Each field will expand automatically if additional space is needed.

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 F4FBEP5348A002.

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

Institute of Physics (IOP) IOPscience database of electronic journals 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:

Institute of Physics (IOP) Publishing, Inc.

190 N. Independence Mall W.

Suite 601

Philadelphia, PA 19106

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 physics and related disciplines.

b. The proposed action is to acquire access to all Institute of Physics (IOP) publications on the IOPscience platform. This is the web site from which all IOP publications can be accessed and a search engine used to find information by topic, journal title, author, key words, etc. Each title is a different stand-alone scientific publication. They cover most areas of physics and technology. Some of the titles included in the

IOPscience collection include: Transactions of the Optical Society, Superconductor Science and

Technology, Soviet Physics Uspekhi, Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics, Smart Materials and

Structures and Semiconductor Science and Technology.

c. The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a scientific charity headquartered in London (United Kingdom) that works to advance physics education, research and application. The Institute of Physics was formed in 1960 from the merger of the Physical Society, founded as the Physical Society of London in 1874, and the

Institute of Physics, founded in 1920. It has a worldwide membership of around 50,000. The IOP supports physics in education, research, and industry. They publish numerous journals that are all pertinent to the work of AFRL. This contract would provide electronic desktop access for all AFRL scientists and engineers

(S&Es) at all of the AFRL sites throughout the CONUS and selected overseas sites. The online version of the journals allows access to full-text scanned images; it allows search by author, title, and conference. This resource is intended to supplement AFRL's collection of existing technical journals.

d. The type of appropriation that will fund this requirement is 3600 funding.

e. Total cost for annual publications:

Base Year: $426,072.00

Total Contract Value: $426,072.00

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).

The IOP electronic journals are a unique resource for AFRL, not available from any other source. The IOP journals supplement the AFRL libraries' collections of physics books and journals for this subject area. The

Sole source acquisition is justified because the Institute of Physics (IOP) has exclusive copyright to their data. They would not allow their data to be purchased from any other sources, nor do we have the option of going directly to other publishers.

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 or purchase SPIE electronic meeting papers and journals on an on-demand basis. Both outcomes produce inefficiency through an increased need of library resources, creation of unproductive processes and an increased use of the Government Purchase Card. In addition, lack of access to the SPIE electronic meeting papers and journals would slow the often time-sensitive scientific research done by Air Force Research

Laboratory scientists and engineers in support of the warfighter and the U.S. Air Force mission.

Accordingly, Institute of Physics (IOP) is the only firm capable of providing the resources described above without the U.S. Air Force experiencing unacceptable delays and substantial duplication of cost that could not be recouped through competition.

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

An Intent to Award Sole Source synopsis (FA8604-16-N-7982) was accomplished from 15 October 2015 -

05 November 2015 (via FBO.gov) requesting any interested firms to submit a capabilities package indicating their capability to provide these required publications. No responses to the posting on FBO were received. The market research (See Section VIII) and synopsis confirms the scientific publications required by AFRL are only available from IOP.

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 anticipated to be 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 IOP'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 IOP subscription. To date, the IOP 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.

Institute of Physics (IOP) Publishing, Inc.

190 N. Independence Mall W.

Suite 601

Philadelphia, PA 19106

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 IOP 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.

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).

http://www.journalprices.com/

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).

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