6_-_OSA_JA_Redacted.pdf

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

For Official Use Only

For Official Use OnlyUpdated: 15 Mar 16

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 and < $13.5M > $13.5M and < $93M > $93M

Contracting Activity: AFLCMC/PZIE, Wright-Patterson AFB

Purchase Request / Local ID Number: TBD

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): Optical Society of America (OSA) - OSA Publishing electronic publications

Program Type (PEO or Other Contracting): Other Contracting

Authority (include full title): FAR 13.106-1(b) Soliciting From a Single Source & FAR 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

For Official Use Only

For Official Use OnlyUpdated: 15 Mar 16

I. Contracting Activity.

This justification and approval to request authority for Other Than Full and Open Competition supports requirements generated for the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) D'Azzo Library and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Library Council organization. The contracting activity for this requirement is the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Specialized Contracting Section (AFLCMC/

PZIEC).

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 Optical Society of America's (OSA), OSA Publishing, using Other Than Full and Open Competition as prescribed by FAR 13.106-1(b) (soliciting from a single source), and 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:

Optical Society of America (OSA) 2010 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036-1023

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

AFRL is the 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.

AFIT is the Air Force's graduate school of engineering and management as well as its institution for technical professional continuing education. AFIT is committed to providing defense-focused graduate and professional continuing education and research to sustain the technological supremacy of America's air and space forces. D'Azzo Research Library supports this mission by providing exemplary research tools.

Because the research conducted at AFRL and AFIT cover such a vast spectrum of optics and photonics, it is very difficult to predict from where the need for information will arise. Therefore, AFRL and AFIT require access to a comprehensive and authoritative source of scientific publications, citations, and references in the broad field of optics and related disciplines.

The proposed action is to acquire access to OSA's electronic publications from OSA Publishing. OSA Publishing from the Optical Society of America (OSA) is a cutting-edge repository of OSA's content, including 15 flagship, partnered, and co-published peer-reviewed journals. With more than 200,000 articles including papers from over 360 conferences, the OSA Publishing platform is the largest peer-reviewed collection of optics and photonics.

Under the contemplated contract, OSA will provide electronic desktop access to all publications in OSA Publishing for all of the AFIT students, AFIT faculty, and AFRL sites throughout the CONUS and selected

For Official Use Only

For Official Use OnlyUpdated: 15 Mar 16 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 and AFIT's collection of existing optics journals.

This is a commercial item, as defined by FAR 2.101. It is used by the general public and non-governmental entities for purposes other than governmental purposes, and has been sold or licensed to the general public.

The anticipated value is anticipated to be in an amount greater than the simplified acquisition threshold but not exceeding $7 million (including options). Therefore, the Contracting Officer anticipates awarding a contract utilizing the procedures in FAR Subpart 13.5.

The type of appropriation that will fund this requirement is 3400 & 3600 funding.

Total cost for annual publications:

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

13.106-1(b), Soliciting from a single source 13.501(a), Sole Source acquisitions in accordance with 41 U.S.C. 1901

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

OSA Publishing is a unique resource essential to the AFRL and AFIT libraries. They are not available from any other source. These journals supplement the AFRL and AFIT libraries' collection of optics books and journals.

Sole source acquisition is justified because OSA has exclusive copyrights 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.

The effectiveness and efficiency of the new and ongoing research performed by AFIT and AFRL will be significantly impacted without access to the OSA subscription. AFRL alone has over 3,000 scientists and engineers (S&Es) conducting many millions of dollars in research in science and technology projects each year. 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 or request the library staff borrow volumes from outside libraries. This increases the risk of utilizing dated information. Real-time access to this database will ensure valuable time is not spent on wasteful, duplicative efforts, lost research hours and will maximize the potential for efficiency and employee personal growth.

Accordingly, the subscription to OSA Publishing is the only means of receiving the required articles and

For Official Use Only

For Official Use OnlyUpdated: 15 Mar 16 publications, and would prevent the U.S. Air Force from experiencing unacceptable delays and substantial duplication of cost that could not be recouped by attempting competition.

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

A Sources Sought Synopsis (FA8604-17-SS-5006) was published from 18 October 2016 - 08 November 2016 (via FBO.gov) requesting any interested firms to submit a 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 and AFIT are only available from OSA. An Intent to Award Sole Source notice will be posted prior to award to confirm findings.

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(a)(2)(ii) and FAR 13.106-3(a)(2)(iii). This has been previously procured by AFLCMC/PZI for the AFRL library and the price shall be verified against OSA'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.

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

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 OSA subscription. To date, the OSA 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.

Optical Society of America (OSA) 2010 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036-1023

For Official Use Only

For Official Use OnlyUpdated: 15 Mar 16

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 OSA 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 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).