RFQ_Amendment_000001,_NIHES201800013,_Language_Translation_Scientific_Services.pdf

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. CONTRACT ID CODE

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICAITON NO. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicble)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6) CODE

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

FACILITY CODE

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICIATION NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers is extended, is not extended.

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

(a)By completing items 8 and 15, and returning copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment your desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPIRATION DATA (If required)

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS.

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT ORDER

NO. IN ITEM 10A.

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc. ) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority)

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return copies to the issuing office.

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15C. DATE SIGNED

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

16C. DATE SIGNED

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION ( Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

PAGE OF PAGES

6. ISSUED BY CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (No., street, county, State and ZIP Code) (X)

CODE

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

(Signature of person authorized to sign)

16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

NSN 7540-01-152-8070

Previous edition unusable

NIHES201800013 - EHP Language Translation Scientific Services

000001

.No. Reference Questions Answers

1 General Is the file available in XLST format? What source file formats will be available?

Per the SOW, JATS XML will be provided as the source. No other source file types will be made available.

2 General

If our SAM entries are up to date, is there anything more that needs to be submitted regarding SAM data for the RFQ? Do we need to copy our SAM certifications data into the RFP response?

Per Section L of the RFQ, …., IF YOU INTEND TO SUBMIT A QUOTE, YOU

MUST: (1) Go to the Online Representations and Certifications Application

(ORCA) and complete the Representations and Certifications. Offerors must access

ORCA through the System for Award Management (SAM) at http://www.sam.gov;

and (2). Complete, and INCLUDE as part of your price quote. If your registration has been updated then INCLUDE as part of your price quote.

3 General

Are any of the languages requested region specific, such as

Mexican Spanish vs a neutral Spanish for either Latin American or Spain Spanish, Brazilian or Portugal Portuguese?

All languages should be considered “neutral” unless otherwise specified.

RFQ Section J –

Attachment V, STO SOW

Is the sources sought sample for Simplified Chinese to be used for the Quote or is there a different sample to complete that will be sent?

A unique sample has been included with the solicitation, and it must be completed and provided with the response. See word document titled RFQ Section J -

Attachments I – V, specifically, Attachment V - Sample Task Order (STO) SOW

(Page 12 of 12).

5 General Is there an incumbent currently providing translations? If so, who is the incumbent?

This is a new requirement: there is no incumbent currently providing translations

General RFQ Section J –

Attachment, IDIQ

General SOW

In the RFP, 50% of the requests will be 800 words or less. How large will the other 50% of the documents be?

Per Attachment I, “…. at least 50% are expected to be short-form (approximately

800 words) per year during year one (1) and year two (2). The output is expected to increase in year three (3) to between 150–200 articles per year.” The size will vary, likely between 2000-3500 words.

General/ RFQ Section B, Articles B.1 and B.2.

Is the total amount of the RFP per year or for all five years combined?

The program ceiling for the acquisition is $796,455.78 for the five (5) year contract period.

RFQ Section B, Articles

B.1 and B.2.

Is there a Translation style guide with specific instructions on what text should be translated, and specific instructions on the handling of content?

There is no separate translation style guide. The English EHP style guide will be provided to the awardee for informational purposes, but style should be carried over from the English article (for instance, something italic in English should also be italic in the translation). All “text” is subject to translation; instructions on dealing with metadata will be provided to the awardee.

9 General

We have one query on the sample that is to be translated to

Chinese language. There is a reference list at the end of article.

Please advise if this should be retained in English or translated to

Chinese (see below).

References do not need to be translated into Chinese, but the English versions should be retained (and properly linked) in the XML.

http://www.sam.gov/

RFQ Section J –

Attachment V, STO SOW

Regarding the RFQ we would like to request the Contracting

Authority to consider the length of the translation test. Tests are typically samples of work and tend to be 500-1000 words long whereas the article provided has 4822 words. Please consider we, as many other potential tenderers, have already incurred in significant costs in preparation of the translation test for the

NIHES201800013 Sources Sought. We would therefore highly appreciate if you could limit the number of words or pages, we would kindly suggest limiting the provided article to its first one or two pages.

We sympathize with the concern, but EHP must ensure that the selected contractor has the capability to accurately and appropriately translate long-form articles into another language, and to maintain the XML tagging. It would be reckless of the

Government to award a contract based on an incomplete or inaccurate test, and since a good portion of the content to be translated will be long-form, a test file of this length is considered appropriate.

RFQ Section J –

Attachment V, STO SOW

On page 12 of the RFQ_Section_J_-_Attachments_I_-_V.docx it contains both a PDF and XML file but when trying to open/extracts those files from the Word.doc it says that the files cannot be found. I am not sure if any other vendors have mentioned this as of yet but is there any way we can access these documents to support the sample translation exercise as part for the bid?

No other concerns were received from other potential quoters on difficulties opening the inserted documents. If you are viewing the Word file in Protected View, you will not have access to the attached files. You need to enable editing of the document.

12 General

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), is there an incumbent provider currently performing the duties described in the RFQ for the Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP)

Journal? If so, please identify the company or person(s) providing such services, and tell how long NIHES and/or the

EHP Journal has been working with that company or person(s) in this capacity.

This does not qualify as a FOIA request. There is no incumbent provider performing these duties.

13 General

Under the FOIA, how much is the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) currently paying for translation services described in the RFQ?

Again, this does not qualify as a FOIA request. And again, there is no incumbent provider. There are currently no costs.

Why is NIHES considering a change of vendors for translation services?

There is no change in vendors; this is a new acquisition of services.

15 General

Is a list of prospective bidders for this RFQ available? If so, please provide that list or its accessible location online.

Under the combined synopsis and solicitation, NIHES201800013 released at www.fbo.gov, prospective quoters are allow to add/remove themselves as interested vendors from the Interested Vendors List tab. In addition to this, vendors were also allowed to view the interested vendors list. Under the RFQ posting, vendors are instructed to log-in to view the Interested Vendors List.

16 General

Will there be any preference given to any of the following:

minority-owned vendors, small business, woman-owned vendors, veteran-owned vendors, or any other disadvantaged vendors?

No. Under the combined synopsis and solicitation, NIHES201800013 released at www.fbo.gov, the following are stated:

http://www.fbo.gov/ http://www.fbo.gov/

The RFQ also states, And

17 General

How will our proposal be stored, and who will have access to any proprietary information contained therein?

Please reference the following information which is what the Government abides by: CFR › Title 48 › Chapter 1 › Subchapter A › Part 3 › Subpart 3.1 › Section 3.104-

4/48 CFR 3.104-4 - Disclosure, protection, and marking of contractor bid or proposal information and source selection information.

• 48 CFR 2903.104-5 — Disclosure, Protection, and Marking of Contractor

Bid or Proposal Information and Source Selection Information.

• 48 CFR 3.104-2 — General.

• 48 CFR 203.104-4 — Disclosure, Protection, and Marking of Contractor

• 48 CFR 4.802 — Contract Files.

• 48 CFR 415.207 — Handling Proposals and Information.

• 48 CFR 9.105-3 — Disclosure of Preaward Information.

• 48 CFR 1503.104-4 — Disclosure, Protection, and Marking of Contractor

18 General

The RFQ notes inclusion of translation of graphs, related captions, and similar items in journal articles. Do you anticipate that the documents to be translated will contain graphics, figures, drawings, or other design elements that are not editable in Word, thereby creating a need for desktop publishing?

Per the RFQ, graphics will not be translated within the graphic itself. Any translations of materials from the graphic will be appended to the graphic’s caption.

Therefore, no desktop publishing is required.

19 General

Will there be any glossaries, reference files, or translation memories that may be leveraged for cost savings? Will those items differ from article to article or from issue to issue, or will they remain constant across many articles and journals?

Each translation is a unique article, therefore there should be no expectation that previous translations can be reused.

RFQ Section J –

Attachment V, STO SOW

In your pricing table, Item #2 requires figures per article. This is an unknown quantity, considering that we cannot foresee the word count per article, and figures are related to those word counts for pricing. Would NIH amend this line item, perhaps to ask the costing for the Simplified Chinese sample (which includes both text and graphics, and so would be a good representative article that NIH could use for extrapolation of full costs)?

The use of an IDIQ contract type is to allow for flexibility because there are some unknowns but there is always a ceiling to help give context. In this case, task orders will have the specific quantities listed. In addition, during market research and the release of the sources sought notice, industry was asked for suggestions on the pricing structure. Market research and feedback from industry is used to help the

Government in the development of the RFQ. The structure set forth in the RFQ serves the Government’s need. Under Section L, (b) Tab 2 – Price Quote, 2. Sample

Task Order Price Sheet – (Attachment V) requires interested quoters to review

Attachment V, STO SOW (page 12 of 12) for that information and then interested quoters are to plug in the quantities in that column. In the next column, the unit price column asks for the UNIT price that an interested quoter will charge to translate each figure in an article. If there are no figures, the charge to the government is 0; if there is one figure, the charge to the government is that amount;

if there are two figures, the charge to the government is two times that amount; etc.

Therefore no amendment is needed, as the original request is correct.

21 General

Is it acceptable to use a previous Certification FAR Report for the current RFP (referenced in Subject Line above), or will we need to complete a new FAR Report?

Per Section L of the RFQ, …., IF YOU INTEND TO SUBMIT A QUOTE, YOU

MUST: (1) Go to the Online Representations and Certifications Application

(ORCA) and complete the Representations and Certifications. Offerors must access

ORCA through the System for Award Management (SAM) at http://www.sam.gov;

and (2). Complete, and INCLUDE as part of your price quote. If your registration has been updated then INCLUDE as part of your price quote.

http://www.sam.gov/

NIHES201800013 - Government's Responses to Industry Questions

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

The purpose of this Amendment is to provide the Government's responses to Industry questions. See pages 2 - 6 of the Amendment. Note that the RFQ closing date remains Monday, September 10, 2018 at 10:00 AM ET.