Web of Sciences..docx

Access to Web of Science, EndNote and Incites

PCA-OD-04157

Contracting Office Address Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Acquisitions, OA Office of the Director, OD 6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 537-S, Bethesda, MD, 20892.

Introduction This is a notice issued on behalf of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Acquisitions, OA Office of the Director, OD, DHHS, UNITED STATES. This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this Sources Sought is to seek the availability and capability of small business concerns, including 8(a) small business and/or small qualified small business concerns [including Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDB), Woman-owned Small Businesses (WOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Businesses, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSB) and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB] that are interested in and capable of performing the work described in the statement of work. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible.

Small business concerns that believe they possess the capabilities necessary to undertake this work should submit complete documentation of their capabilities to the Contracting Officer. The capability statement should include 1)Name and address of the vendor, 2) Size and type of business, 3) Point of contact with the name, title, phone, fax, and email, 4) UEI number. 5) the professional qualifications of experts, and technical personnel as it relates to the above outlined requirements, any other information considered relevant to this service. The capability statement must not exceed 7 pages. Interested small business organizations are required to identify their size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone numbers of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the solicitation notice number.

A. Background Information Clarivate provides access to citation indices including the Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), the Conference Proceedings Citation Index, and the Book Citation Index to NIH and HHS research staff through their web-based product Web of Science Core collection. Each year more than a million searches are performed in Web of Science by NIH and HHS users. Incites Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is also available through the Web of Science platform. Citations retrieved in Web of Science are linked to the electronic journal holdings of the NIH Library. Web of Science has allowed the NIH Library to provide enhanced and timely access to information NIH and HHS staff need to perform their work whether they are intramural researchers or extramural program administrators.

In addition to Web of Science, Clarivate also provides enterprise-wide access to EndNote, a robust bibliographic citation management tool, to NIH and HHS research staff. Having an enterprise-wide license reduces cost and administrative effort for NIH. They also provide access to InCites Benchmarking and Analytics, a web-based research evaluation tool that assists staff in measuring the impact of NIH and HHS research.

B. Objectives

The specific objective of this requirement is to assure continued access to the citation indices on the Web of Science platform, EndNote and InCites. The databases shall include cited references and available author abstracts. Access will be for all staff of NIH, CMS and other HHS agencies served by the HHS digital library. Access to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and InCites Benchmarking and Analytics shall also be included. The contractor shall also include the option of adding Clarivate research and discovery products.

II. Services to be performed

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 Web of Science product, which includes the Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), the Conference Proceedings Citation Index, the Book Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Index Chemicus, BIOSIS Citation Index, Current Contents Connect, Data Citation Index, Derwent Innovations Index, and the Zoological Record. Access to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) shall also be included. Options for including InCites Benchmarking for NIH Library staff only and NIH and HHS agency staff served by the NIH Library should be included.

2. Provide access to a desktop bibliographic management software that that includes 7000 citation styles, allows the creation of customized reference styles, allows users to provide read only access to their citation libraries, provides automatic reference and linking updates, allows users to view the activity of their collaborators in shared libraries and matches papers with relevant journals.

3. The contractor at a minimum shall update the contents of the databases weekly. Journal Citation Reports (JCR) shall be updated annually.

4. The contractor shall provide NIH with open-URL enabled software to allow third-party linking from the citations in the databases to electronic versions of NIH Library subscribed documents or to document delivery services using products such as Primo. Staff from NIH and HHS shall be taken to a view of the databases on Web of Science that includes only the link to their agency library.

5. The contractor may provide additional services under a task order as needed.

6. The contractor shall provide an option for DLS to add new resources as the contractor adds to its holdings through acquisition or publication of a new resource. The contractor also shall allow for modification of the contract for DLS to cancel selected resources should its funding be reduced.

7. The contractor shall provide API access to the databases for NIH and HHS Digital Library users. The proposal should include detailed information on the type and terms of API access to be provided.

8. The contractor will upgrade the web platform as needed to enhance or improve the functionality of the platform at no additional cost.

9. Staff of NIH and HHS agencies shall be allowed to scan and search the database and print or download the results of their searches for their personal and work-related use. These searches may be either a repetitive scanning of all or portions of the database for regular updates using one or more terms, or may be one-time, non-repetitive, online interactive searches of all or part of the databases. Among the various search capabilities offered by the contractor, cited reference searching is required. The ability to create visualizations of author impact from cited references is also required.

10. The contractor shall provide maintenance service in the form of periodic software updates and technical help support as part of the base price for the database and interface. Technical help support shall be available Monday through Friday during normal business hours.

11. The contractor shall also provide documentation and training materials as appropriate. Training material may be modified to suit the needs of NIH and HHS agencies.

C. Government Responsibilities

1. The Government will be responsible for providing an interface via web links for the NIH community to access the Web of Science 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. A copy of the license shall be included in the proposal.

D. Reporting Requirements and Deliverables

1. The contractor shall regularly provide the COR with monthly aggregated use data for databases, complying with industry standards such as COUNTER and SUSHI. Reports shall be available within 30 days of the end of the month that is the subject of the report.

2. Monthly usage data shall be broken out separately for NIH and for the individual HHS agencies served by the NIH Library/DLS.

3. The contractor shall provide download statistics for EndNote and other subscribed Clarivate software tools twice a year. An example of the report should be provided with the proposal.

4. The contractor shall assure the web platform and databases are available 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year with unscheduled downtime rate not to exceed 1%. Notification of scheduled downtime shall be provided one week in advance at a minimum and will be scheduled in low use periods—between midnight and 6:00 am EST Monday through Friday or 6:00 pm and 6:00 am EST on weekends.

Point of Contact

Lynda Cole, Contract Specialist, Office of the Director, OD, Lynda.cole@nih.gov.

Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Acquisition, Office of the Director, 6701 Rockledge Dr., Rm 537-S, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

Submission Instructions:

Interested parties shall submit capability statements via email to Lynda Cole at Lynda.cole@nih.gov due Friday, September 11, 2026 at 2:00 pm EST.

All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered.

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to provide the item. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After review of the responses received, pre-solicitation and solicitation notices will be published in SAM.GOV. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.