Bibliometrics_and_Patents__SOW_10__16_14_DACS_MSD.doc

October 16, 2014

Statement of Work

Access to a Bibliometrics and Patent Database

BACKGROUND

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) has an on-going requirement to access and extract information from a bibliometrics and patent database that includes information on peer reviewed science and engineering articles, conference papers, patents, patent citations, and related research outputs. These data are needed to generate indicators of the patterns and trends of research and innovation related output in the United State and internationally. These indicators include science and engineering articles and patents by country, institutional sectors (e.g. academia, industry), field of science (publications), field of technology and industry (patents); collaboration among countries and institutional sectors; citation of articles by country and scientific field; and citations of patents to prior patents and scientific literature by country, scientific field, and technology.

These indicators are key parts of Chapters 5 and 6 of the Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) volume, a biennial National Science Board report providing high quality quantitative data bearing on the scope, quality, and vitality of the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. NCSES’s current contract for access to bibliometrics data and production of bibliometrics indicators will end on January 31, 2015. NCSES requires a new contract to access bibliometric and patent data and to produce indicators of research and innovation related output for SEI and other analytical needs.

STATEMENT OF WORK

Task 1. Provide Access to a Suitable Database.

TASK 1a. Mandatory Components.

The contractor shall issue a license that provides NCSES and its analytical services contractor with access to a bibliometrics and patent database that has worldwide, high quality data on patents and on science and engineering publications dating from at least the mid-1990s to the present (henceforth, "bibliometrics and patent database"). This includes bibliometric data on patterns and trends in authorship, citation, and collaboration as well as patent and patent citation data. For both bibliometric and patent data, coverage should be across time, countries, and sub-national units. For patent data, coverage should include major national and regional patent offices, including offices covering the United States, Europe, and Japan. In addition, the bibliometrics and patent database shall provide coverage of cited references extending back to at least the mid-1990s.

The bibliometrics and patent database shall be suitable for use in constructing indicators of research and innovation related output and influence that will be published in SEI and in preparing aggregate statistical analyses for use in other NCSES analytical publications. The license shall be limited to NCSES statistical uses of the bibliometrics and patent database.

The bibliometrics and patent database shall enable NSF and/or its analytical services provider to:

· Attribute authorship and citation credit for U.S. authored articles to institutional addresses, unified names of institutions (e.g. Harvard University, U.S. Department of Energy), institutional sectors (academia, industry, non-profit, Federally-funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), federal government, state government) and U.S. states. Attribute authorship and citation credit for non-U.S. authored articles to different countries and country groupings.

· Attribute publication and citation credit for U.S. authored articles by assigning proportional credit to each institutional address or name of unified institution (fractional counting) and also by assigning full credit to each institutional address or name of unified insitution (whole counting).

· Attribute publication and citation credit for non-U.S. authored articles by assigning proportional credit to each institutional address (fractional counting), and also by assigning full credit to each institutional address (whole counting).

· Assign articles to both sub-fields and broad fields of science and engineering, including social sciences and psychology.

· Attribute patents to inventors and assignees for U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) patents to institutional addresses, unified names of institutions (e.g. IBM, Harvard University, U.S. Department of Energy), institutional sectors (academia, industry, non-profit, FFRDCs, federal government, state government) and U.S. states. Attribute non-U.S. assignees and inventors to different countries and country groupings.

· Attribute credit for inventors listed on patents by assigning proportional credit to each inventor’s institutional address or name of unified institution (fractional counting) and also by assigning full credit to each inventor’s institutional address or name of unified institution (whole counting).

· Link patents to scientific research publications cited in the patent document by institutional sector, U.S. state, countries, and country grouping.

Subtask 1b. Desirable (Non-Mandatory) components The following characteristics or capabilities of the database are desirable for NCSES:

· Cover publications and cited references dated prior to the mid-1990s.

· Use a field classification for publications and cited articles that is broadly compatible with NSF’s field classification (See appendix table 5-25 in SEI 2014 -- http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-5/c5s.htm - sb5).

· Assign patents to an internationally-comparable classification of technologies and to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

· Attribute authorship and citation credit for U.S. authored articles to locations below the state level, such as metropolitan area or zip code. Attribute U.S. inventors on patents to locations below the state level, such as metropolitan area or zip code.

· Attribute authorship and citation credit of non-U.S. authored publications to unified names of institutions and to institutional sectors (e.g., academia, industry, non-profit, government). Attribute non-U.S. inventors of patents to unified names of institutions and institutional sectors.

· Allow crediting publications to the unique names of U.S. and non-U.S. authors (and not only to the institutions with which those individuals are affiliated). In addition, it is desirable for the database to enable crediting of publications and other content to unique author names that have multiple institutional affiliations.

· Allow fractional counting to multi-authored articles attributed to an institution whereby credit is allocated to the number of unique author names associated with each insitutional author of the article.

· Include data needed to construct non-traditional measures of scientific output and knowledge flows. Possible data include, but are not limited to: electronic publications beyond those that appear in conventional journals, publications on pre-print servers, measures of support and knowledge flows drawn from acknowledgements, and altmetrics.

· Provide additional measures of patent quality, such as identification of patents applied for in multiple patent offices to protect a single invention (patent families).

Task 2 (Optional): Customization of provider’s bibliometric database The contractor shall conduct the following activities to customize the bibliometric and patent database to enable NCSES and its analytic contractors to analyze the data and report findings more efficiently:

· Assigning U.S. authored articles to different U.S. states, institutions, and institutional sectors (academia, industry, non-profit, FFRDCs, federal government, state government).

· Mapping articles, conference proceedings, and other content to the broad and fine research fields of NSF’s WebCaspar field classification. (See appendix table 5-25 in SEI 2014 -- http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-5/c5s.htm - sb5)

· Assigning U.S. inventors of U.S. patents to different U.S. states, institutions, and institutional sectors (academia, industry, non-profit, FFRDCs, federal government, state government).

· Assigning U.S. patents to industries based on the North American Industry Classification System.

· Assigning patents from major national and regional offices to technology areas to allow for international comparison.

Task 3 (Optional): Ad Hoc Analysis

For Task 3 is for Ad Hoc data analysis on an hourly basis.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

For Task 1, the proposal shall thoroughly describe the coverage and quality features of the bibliometrics and patent database and provide evidence to substantiate general claims about the database. At a minimum, the description shall include:

· Number of journals, conference proceedings, books, patents, and other content covered on an annual basis from the mid-1990s to the present (on the basis of publication year or year in which the patents are granted).

· Completeness of coverage of cited references for covered journals, articles, conference proceedings, books, patents, and other content. This includes information on the time period of cited references.

· International scope of patents, including identification of patent families and the extent of coverage of major patent offices, including offices covering the United States, Europe, and Japan as well as the scope of coverage outside of these major offices.

· Quality standards used to determine whether journals, conference proceedings, books and any other content will be included in the database. This includes identification and description of any outside data compilations that are incorporated into the database, including a description of the standards those compilations use. If some content in these compilations does not meet the standards applied to the database generally, a description of whether this content and/or the compilation from which this content derives can be readily identified in the bibliometrics data. In addition, describe data elements, if any, that indicate the quality of a journal.

· Criteria for inclusion of journals, conference proceedings, books, and other content, including quantitative and qualitative factors. If expert judgment is involved in selection of journals or other content, please describe the qualifications and experience of the personnel involved in inclusion decisions.

· Criteria and procedures for adding and dropping journals, conference proceedings, books, and other content.

· An assessment of possible national, regional, disciplinary, linguistic, or other coverage biases in the data, including a description of any available systematic evidence bearing on this issue. This shall include an assessment of whether and how such biases have changed between the mid-1990s and the present.

· Criteria for inclusion of an item as a “publication,” “conference proceeding,” or “citation” in the database. A description of any other research output or influence categories that consequentially affect inclusion criteria for any other content in the database, especially insofar as these categories may be defined differently in other bibliometric databases.

· A discussion of evidence, including studies of sample data that validate the database’s representation of the real world. Discussion should include information on the accuracy, precision, and recall of any studies, if available. Please see the following for definitions of accuracy, precision, and recall: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision#In_binary_classification .)

· The procedures used to create data fields that unify the names of institutions, identify unique authors and inventors and link authors and inventors with institutions. In addition, discuss data elements, if any, that capture multiple institutional affiliations of authors or inventors. A description of the accuracy, precision, and / or recall of the resulting data fields and the methodology used to assess accuracy, precision, and recall.

· A clarification of whether the bibliometrics and patent data contain more than one field for unification of a given entity or of a given relationship between entities. If more than one field is available, explain how these fields could be used to best determine the identity of the entity or relationship.

· A description of the field taxonomy used in the bibliometrics database and the procedures for assigning journals, articles, and other products to fields. For multidisciplinary journals, a discussion of how articles published in these journals are assigned to a specific field of research.

· If applicable, a description of the technology and industry classification used in the patent database and the procedures for assigning patents to technologies and industries.

· A clarification of whether the publications and patent database data would contain information that could distinguish between research output and citations attributable to a university's medical school and output and citations attributable to the rest of the university.

· Format(s) (e.g. XML, tagged) of the bibliometrics and patent data that could be provided to NCSES and / or its analytical services provider.

· A discussion of what database schemas, both for XML and relational databases, could be provided to NCSES or its analytic services provider and the suitability of the schemas for structuring an XML or relational database. Clarify if additional charges would apply.

· Whether the proposed license would permit both NCSES and an analytic services contractor to maintain separate copies of the publications and patent database (Note that the analytics contractor would only have permission to use the publications and patent database to address NCSES needs).

· The proposal shall describe any limitations on use that the contractor proposes to include in the database license (e.g., limitations on publishing data on individual institutions).

Offerors shall address whether and in what way they propose to address the listed non-mandatory components of Task 1. Offerors shall describe any additional features of the database that can be used to produce indicators of research output or influence.

For proposed customization activities under Task 2, offerors shall address the technical requirements and approach involved. Under Task 2, the contractor is to propose the following processes:

· Assigning articles to the research fields and subfields in NSF’s WebCaspar field classification (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/database.cfm). If the contractor proposes such a process, the technical proposal shall describe the quality of the field assignments that would result, whether the assignments would be made at the article or journal level, and what data would be available for making article-level assignments.

· Assigning U.S. authored articles and U.S. inventors of patents to NCSES institutional sectors (namely, federal government, state/local government, industry, academic, private nonprofit, and federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs) [see http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/]). The contactor shall ensure that NCSES will have the capability to assign credit to these institutional sectors on a fractional and whole counting basis. It is desirable that NCSES have the capability to link unique author and inventor names to the NCSES institutional sectors.

For Task 3, offerors shall propose an hourly rate for ad hoc data analysis in Section B.

1. Quotation Preparation Instructions

The term “quotation” shall mean collectively the following physically separate volumes, individually titled as shown below:

(1) Summary cover letter signed by the quoter

(2) Technical Quote – Hard Copy (4 – one original and three copies, Electronic copy on CD (1); Past performance information in accordance with the instructions in this section.

and

(3) Price Quote – Hard Copy (4 – one original and 3 copies of SF 1449 and sections A - E), Electronic copy on CD. Price Quote is Section B of SF 1449 Quoters shall limit the technical quote to 60 pages of narrative of the tasks which shall be specific to the procedures proposed, including any charts, graphs, etc., but NOT including resumes and supporting documentation of key personnel. The technical quote shall be single-spaced and a minimum font size of 10 for the main text, the text for graphs, charts etc. may be smaller.

Past Performance - The quoter is requested to provide a minimum of three (3) contract project references, but no more than five (5) contract project references, which it has recently performed [within the last three (3) years of the closing date of the RFQ] or is currently performing, that are similar in nature to this contract. For each contract please include:

a.

Contract number, contract type and dollar value;

b.

Date of contract award and period of performance;

c.

Point of contact (Name, Phone Number, email address etc.); and d.

Brief description of contract work, scope and responsibilities.

The Government may contact the listed person(s). The description of each example shall not exceed two (2) pages (10 maximum) and will count against the page limit on the technical quote

The quoters shall follow the structure in the statement of work in addressing each activity in the quote.

RFP Questions Due: Questions about the RFP are due: 10am Nov 3, 2014 via email to sdonley@nsf.gov, no phone calls will be accepted.

RFP Due: Proposals are due a 11am Nov 14, 2014. Offerors are submit one hardcopy original and three copies along with softcopy of all files on CD. No late quotes will be accepted. Ouotes are to be mailed/delivered to:

National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 475

Attn: Scott Donley

Arlington, VA 22230

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