D.1 SOW.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

PROJECT TITLE: Access to Springer Nature Online Resources

I. Statement of Work

A. Background Information

Springer Nature Group provides access to online resources for NIH staff and HHS agency staff served by the NIH Library (DLS), including over 2,600 journals in a wide range of scientific, technical and medical subjects, over 65,000 eBooks, and databases such as Springer Protocols. Links from PubMed, Web of Science®, and the NIH Library website allow NIH staff to connect directly to the articles on the Springer Nature website following a search of the various sites. Springer Nature online resources allow DLS to provide enhanced and timely access to information NIH staff need to perform their work whether they are intramural researchers or extramural program administrators.

Feedback from NIH and HHS researchers, clinicians, and administrators indicate that the easy accessibility of needed information made possible by providing electronic access to Springer Nature resources has increased their productive work time, because of the time saved identifying and retrieving relevant articles.

B. Objectives

The specific objective of this requirement requires the contractor to provide the NIH and the HHS agency staff served by the NIH Library (DLS) access to the electronic version of select Springer Nature journals, books, and databases through its web interface.

Access will be cumulative for articles published in the journals since 1997 (for Springer journal titles) or 2007 (for Nature journal titles) or the first year a journal was offered on the Springer Nature platform. The contractor is also required to provide access to other databases and journals as outlined under the “specific requirements” section of this

SOW.

II. Services to be performed

A. General Requirements

1. Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, materials, equipment and facilities needed to perform the Statement of Work below.

2. All work under this contract shall be monitored by the Contracting Officer Representative (COR).

B. Specific Requirements

Specifically, the contractor shall:

1. Provide the NIH and the HHS agency staff served by the NIH Library (DLS) access to the electronic version of select Springer Nature journals, purchased Springer eBook collections, and subscribed databases such as Springer Protocols through its web interface. Access will be cumulative for articles published in the journals since 1997 (for Springer journal titles) or 2007 (for Nature journal titles) or the first year a journal was offered on the Springer Nature platform, based upon previous investments.

2. The contractor also shall provide options for acquiring eBooks, online reference works, backfiles of selected journals, databases, and Content on Demand (COD) tokens. Options should factor in all previous investments subscriptions, as well as previous archive backfile purchases.

3. The contractor also shall provide options for supporting open access publishing, including transformative agreements. The contractor shall also provide an option for DLS to withdraw from these agreements should its funding be reduced.

4. The contractor shall provide options to include all Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies with access to the same resources as identified in this contract. The contractor shall provide options for including existing subscriptions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

5. The contractor shall provide an option for DLS to add new titles as the contractor adds to its holdings through acquisition or publication of a new title. The contractor also shall provide an option for DLS to cancel selected journal titles should its funding be reduced.

6. DLS may fulfill interlibrary loan requests in accord with Section 108 of the United States Copyright Law (17 USC Sec. 108, “Limitations on exclusive rights:

Reproduction by libraries and archives”) and clause 3 of the Guidelines for the Proviso of Subsection 108(g)(2) prepared by the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works.

7. DLS shall retain perpetual access to all subscribed years of resources.

8. The contractor shall agree to the incorporation of all license agreements into the contract.

9. The ordering period for this contract shall be January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2031.

C. Government Responsibilities

1. The Government will be responsible for providing an interface via web links for the NIH community to access the Springer website.

2. NIH will be responsible for creating a system to validate security for entrance into the website.

3. Upon signature by the Government, the contractor license agreement will be incorporated into the contract.

D. Reporting Requirements and Deliverables

1. The contractor shall regularly provide the Project Officer with monthly usage statistics for individual journal titles as well as aggregated use data for journals and databases, complying with industry standards such as COUNTER and Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI).

2. The contractor shall provide use by selected NIH institutes when that use is identifiable, e.g. from IP range or log in, as requested.