SPIE_Redacted_for_Synopsis_Redacted.pdf

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

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYFOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYFOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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 > $700K and < $13.5M > $13.5M and < $93M > $93M

Contracting Activity: AFLCMC/PZIE

Purchase Request / Local ID Number: F4FBEP5258A003

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): SOCIETY OF PHOTO-OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS (SPIE)

Program Type (PEO or Other Contracting): NASIC

Authority (include full title):

FAR 13.106-1(b) Soliciting from a single source & 13.501(a) Sole Source Acquisitions

Estimated Contract Cost (including options): $387,360.00 J&A Type: Class Individual

COORDINATION (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date Contracting Officer

AFLCMC/PZIE

Signature

Date Project Lead / Program Mgr / Requiring Activity

AFRL/RQWL

APPROVAL (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date Contracting Officer

AFLCMC/PZIE

Date: 2015.12.11 10:20:21 -05'00'

Date: 2015.12.18 13:50:41 -05'00'

Date: 2015.12.11 10:21:28 -05'00'

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYFOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYFOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

I. Contracting Activity.

This justification and approval to request authority for Other Than Full and Open Competition supports requirements generated for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Library Council organization. The contracting activity for this requirement is the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Installation Contracting Division (AFLCMC/PZIE). The purchase request number supporting this contract action is F4FBEP5258A003.

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 SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) Digital Library using Other Than Full and Open Competition as prescribed by FAR 13.106-1(b) Soliciting from a single source & 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:

SPIE - International Society for Optics and Photonics P.O. Box 10 Bellingham, WA 98227-0010 Phone: 360-676-3290 (Direct phone: 360-588-6919) Fax: 360-647-1445 Email: melodier@spie.org (Melodie Richards, vendor representative)

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

a. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is the U.S. 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. Because AFRL projects cover such a vast spectrum of science and engineering topics, it is very difficult to predict from where the need for information will arise. Therefore, AFRL requires access to a comprehensive and authoritative source of scientific publications, citations, and references in the broad field of aerospace engineering.

b. SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is the principal professional society for engineers and scientists engaged in optics, photonics, optoelectronics, and imaging research. Each year the Society sponsors meetings that produce around 15,000 technical papers. The SPIE Digital Library provides desktop access to these papers and numerous optics journals for all AFRL scientists and engineers at all of the AFRL sites throughout CONUS and some overseas sites. The online version of the meeting papers allows access to full-text scanned images; browsing by author, title, and conference.

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

d. Total cost for annual publications:

Base Year:

Option #1 (CY 17) Option #2 (CY 18) Option #3 (CY 19)

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Option #4 (CY 20) Total Contract Value:

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

13.106(b), Soliciting from a single source 13.501(a), Sole Source acquisitions

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

The SPIE Digital Library is a unique resource for AFRL, not available from any other source, and supplements the AFRL libraries' collections of optics, photonics, optoelectronics, and imaging books and journals for this subject area. Sole source acquisition is justified because SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) has exclusive copyright 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.

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, risking the use of dated information or purchase SPIE electronic meeting papers and journals on an on-demand basis. Both outcomes produce inefficiency through an increased need of library resources, creation of unproductive processes and an increased use of the Government Purchase Card. In addition, lack of access to the SPIE electronic meeting papers and journals would slow the often time-sensitive scientific research done by Air Force Research Laboratory scientists and engineers in support of the warfighter and the U.S. Air Force mission.

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

An intent to award sole source synopsis (FA8604-16-N-7968) was accomplished from 15 October-05 November 2016 requesting any interested firms to submit a capabilities package indicating their capability to provide these required publications. The market research (See Section VIII) and synopsis confirms the scientific publications required by AFRL are only available from SPIE.

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

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

b. 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

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FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYFOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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 SPIE subscription. To date, the SPIE 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.

SPIE - International Society for Optics and Photonics P.O. Box 10 Bellingham, WA 98227-0010

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 SPIE 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/she 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).