A04___J_and_A_for_S_and_T_Journal_Citations_and_Patent_Data.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES

1155 DEFENSE PENTAGON

WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1155

ACQUISITION

DIRECTORATE

January 28, 2016

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR USE OF

OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity

Washington Headquarters Services – Acquisition Directorate 1155 Defense Pentagon Washington DC 20301-1155

2. Description of the Action Being Approved

This justification is to seek approval for a sole source contract with Thomson Reuters (Scientific) LLC for subscriptions to its “Web of Science” platform. The period of performance will be for a base year from January 1, 2016 to December 30, 2017 and two subsequent option years. The subscription will be structured as a Firm-Fixed Price contract with a total value of $243,363.00. The amount for the base year is $79,916.00, $81,115.00 for the first option year, and $82,332.00 for the second option year.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The Office of Technical Intelligence (OTI) requires a holistically integrated database and analytic tool that contains comprehensive academic science and technical literature and citations as well as private sector patent data. The analytical tool needs to meet the following technical requirements:

1) An integrated database and analytic tool package that permits database searches for scientific and technical literature (e.g. publications, conference proceedings, books, etc.)

as well as journal citation and patent data.

2) A tool to enable analysts to cohesively understand the impact of academia and commercial research on the development of critically important emerging technologies.

3) The analytical tool should be able to:

• Identify specific research areas based on key term searches;

• Determine trends and leading papers or patents; and

• Assess the strength of particular papers and patents;

• Determine centers or persons of excellence in specific fields;

• Provide in-depth coverage of Asian S&T publications.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority

The Office of Technical Intelligence requires an integrated database and analytical tool package to search web based databases and create trend results reports. The data and analytic tool will enable analysts to cohesively understand the impact of academia and commercial research development on the development of critically important emerging technologies from a Defense perspective.

This is a follow-on contract to the first contract for the OTI for an integrated database and analytical tool package. The market research results confirmed that only one source exists with all of the required elements that the OTI requires. Without this web based integrated database and analytical tool package the Data Scientist would not be capable of creating the trend reports for emerging technologies and patent reports.

6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offerors as Possible

A Sources Sought notice (SAH111720151600) was issued on FedBizOps on December 2, 2015. Two firms responded to the sources sought notice, EBSCO and Thomson Reuters.

EBSCO’s offering did not demonstrate that it meet all of the OTI’s requirements. The EBSCO product did not include a capability to discern trends in literature – including those on a more granular level such as leading authors, the strength of papers and patents, and determining persons of excellence in a field. Additionally, EBSCO’s subscription does not provide comprehensive coverage of Asian science and technology publications which is an OTI requirement.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost

The Contracting Officer has determined the contract type for this contract will be Firm-Fixed Price contract. The Contracting Officer will conduct a price analysis to ensure that this contract is fair and reasonable and in best interest of the Government.

8. Description of Market Research

The market research for this requirement included background gained by OTI as it conducted research and a Sources Sought Notice.

As described in paragraph 6, two firms responded to the Sources Sought notice of December 2, 2015. A review of the responses determined that only one firm provides the all the required features. One company claimed to provide a similar product; however the results of the technical evaluation found that EBSCO did not meet the technical requirements to satisfy the OTI needs, specifically as related to

• Identify specific research areas based on key term searches;

• Determine trends and leading papers or patents; and

• Assess the strength of particular papers and patents;

• Determine centers or persons of excellence in specific fields;

• Provide in-depth coverage of Asian S&T publications.

The responses to the Sources Sought notice correspond to OTI’s understanding of the marketplace. Over the past 5 years OTI has performed several surveys of data sources and tools applicable to its mission. This has been supported by surveys and inputs from foreign government counterparts (Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand) and other US Government agencies. One agency, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), has spent four years analyzing academic publication data and applications. These efforts indicate that there are two major academic publication citation databases and that Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science has greater coverage. “Web of Science” begins its coverage at an earlier time than the other database, Elsevier’s Scopus. OTI also examined other contractor websites and GSA schedules to confirm that there are no comparable offerings. OTI did not find any other offerors with the breadth of data coverage of Thomson Reuters.

9. Any other facts

N/A

10. Listing of Interested Sources

EBSCO and Thomson Reuters responded to the Sources Sought notice.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required

The base year contract is for twelve months. The OTI will revisit the need to contract for these same services at the nine-month mark of this twelve month period of performance. OTI will continue to conduct market research during this period to identify new vendors.

12. Approval

Requiring Office Certification:

I certify that the supporting data, which form the basis for this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition, are complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Gloria Lovett Date

Contracting Officer Certification:

All of the requirements of FAR Part 6.3 have been considered in preparing this justification. Based on the above, I recommend this acquisition be conducted on the basis of other than full and open competition. I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Michael J. Murtha Date Contracting Office