Access to Elsevier's "Science Direct" On-Line Services

Project Title: Access to Elsevier's "Science Direct" On-Line Services

This is a "Sources Sought Notice". It is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts or quotations. The purpose of this notice is for market research purposes and will be used to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform the potential requirement described herein in the statement of work.

DRAFT STATEMENT OF WORK

A. Background Information

For the past sixteen years, the NIH Library has provided access to over 1300 journals in a wide range of scientific, technical and medical subjects through its contract with Elsevier for ScienceDirect®. For the past decade, the contract also included access and use rights to the Scopus®, EMBASE®, and Reaxys® databases, online reference works, and thousands of online books published or produced by Elsevier. Each year well over two million articles are downloaded from ScienceDirect® by NIH researchers and hundreds of thousands of searches are conducted on the databases. Links from PubMed, Web of Science® the Elsevier databases, and the NIH Library website allow NIH staff to connect directly to the articles in ScienceDirect® following a search of the various sites. ScienceDirect® and the other resources included in this contract allow DLS to provide enhanced and timely access to information NIH staff need to perform their work whether they are intramural researchers or extramural program administrators. Feedback from NIH and HHS researchers, clinicians and administrators indicates that the easy accessibility of critical information made possible by providing electronic access to Elsevier eJournals, eBooks and the Scopus®, Embase®, and Reaxys® databases has increased their productive work time because of the time saved identifying and retrieving relevant content.

B. Objectives

The specific objective of this requirement requires the contractor to continue to provide the NIH and the HHS agency staff served by the NIH Library (DLS) access to the electronic version of select Elsevier journals including Cell Press titles, through its web interface ScienceDirect®. Access will be cumulative for articles published in the journals since 1995 or the first year a journal was offered on the ScienceDirect® platform. The contractor is also required to continue to provide access to other databases and journals as outlined under the "specific requirements" section of this SOW.

C. Services to be performed

a. General Requirements

1. Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, materials, equipment and facilities needed to perform the Statement of Work below.

2. All work under this contract shall be monitored by the Project Officer.

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 electronic version of select Elsevier journals, including Cell Press titles, through its web interface ScienceDirect®. Access will be cumulative for articles published in the journals since 1995 or the first year a journal was offered on the ScienceDirect® platform, based upon previous investments.

2. The contractor shall also provide options for continued unlimited access to the Scopus®,
Embase®, and Reaxys® databases for NIH and HHS staff. The contractor shall provide options for adding access to Elsevier online tools (including but not limited to SciVal®, Pathway Studio®, Quosa®, and Scopus® data sets) for NIH and HHS staff. The contractor shall also provide options for text data mining (TDM) for NIH and HHS staff.

3. The contractor also shall provide options for acquiring eBooks, online reference works, and backfiles of selected journals (journal articles published prior to 1995). Options should factor in all previous investments in print and digital subscriptions, as well as previous archive backfile purchases. The contractor shall provide a 90-day trial period for eBook acquisitions.

4. The contractor may also provide options to include all Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies with access to the same resources as identified in this contract. The contractor may also provide options for including existing subscriptions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into this agreement.

5. The contractor shall provide an option for DLS to add new titles as the contractor adds to its holdings through acquisition or publication of a new title. The contractor also shall provide an option for DLS to cancel selected journal titles should its funding be reduced.

c. Government Responsibilities

1. The Government will be responsible for providing an interface via web links for the NIH community to access the Elsevier "ScienceDirect" 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.

d. Reporting Requirements and Deliverables

1. The contractor shall regularly provide the Project Officer with monthly usage statistics for individual journal titles as well as aggregated use data for eJournals, eBooks, and databases, complying with industry standards such as COUNTER and SUSHI.

2. Monthly usage data shall be broken out separately for NIH and for the individual HHS agencies served by the NIH Library/DLS. Each report should include title, ISSN, eISSN, monthly usage, YTD usage, and an indication as to whether it is a subscribed title or a Freedom Collection title.

3. Use by selected NIH institutes may also be required when that use is identifiable, e.g. from IP range or log in.

4. A quarterly report detailing all titles being provided through this contract shall be provided. This report should include the title, ISSN, eISSN, publishing status, journal title URL, and any status-related comments.

(i) Anticipated period of performance

The period of performance is expected to be for one (1) twelve months base period and four (4) twelve months option periods. The contract is anticipated to be from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.

(ii) Other important considerations

Section 508 Compliance - the product must be ADA compliant for procurement consideration.

(iii) Submission of Capability Statements and Delivery Instructions

In 15 pages or less any interested business organization should submit a capability statement of their organization which demonstrates their ability to supply the services described above OR provide a capability statement that demonstrate how other potential databases can meet the requirement described above.

Respondents should also include any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisitions requirements. The NAICS Code for this requirement is 511120.

Responses must reference the sources sought number HHS-NIH-OD-OLAO-SS-19-012 and include the following: (1) Name and Address of the organization (2) Size and Type of business, pursuant to the applicable NAICS code 511120 (3) Point of Contact with name, title, phone, fax and email (4) DUNS number (5) Contractors capability statement should address the deliverables in the statement of work and the important consideration mentioned above (6) List of organizations to whom similar types of services have been previously provided to include contract number, dollar value, name and phone number of contracting officer.

ALL INFORMATION SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUCEMENT
MUST BE RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE OF:
September 5, 2019 at 10 A.M. EST.

Emailed responses are authorized (either in Microsoft word or PDF), but it is up to the vendor to ensure that the email is received by the government. Responses by Facsimile (FAX) and hard copies WILL NOT be accepted. All questions and/or comments must be in writing and may be emailed to O. Joy Ajao at ajaooj@mail.nih.gov.

(iv) Disclaimer and Important Notes

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response to this announcement. 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 perform the work. 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 a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

(v) Confidentiality

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

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