Subscriptions for Electronic Perpetual Access

The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service seeks subscriptions providing electronic perpetual access to Royal Society of Chemistry journals and the Merck Index Online, with quotations due September 12. The procurement is set-aside for small business concerns with a 1,000-employee size standard.

Place of performance is Calverton, Maryland. The contractor shall provide authenticated, un-embargoed perpetual electronic access to all RSC Gold collection journals (41 titles spanning analytical chemistry, materials science, environmental science, and catalysis, covering volumes through 2026) and Merck Index Online for USDA employees, contractors, authorized public on-site users, cooperators, and volunteers worldwide, available 24 hours per day. Authorized users retain rights to view, print, save, reuse, and disseminate content for ordinary business, scholarly, and educational purposes. The contractor must grant perpetual use rights that survive contract termination for any reason and provide access without imposing additional terms, conditions, or restrictions beyond those in the contract.

The contract is a firm fixed-price requirements contract with one base year and four one-year option periods, not to exceed five years. The Government intends to make one award and will evaluate using lowest price technically acceptable approach per FAR 12.203, with evaluation criteria of price, technical acceptability, and past performance. Only the lowest priced quote will be evaluated for technical acceptability; if unacceptable, evaluation proceeds sequentially through remaining quotes in price order. Quotations must be firm for 90 calendar days from receipt. The contractor must provide administrative credentials within five days of award and monthly COUNTER-compliant usage statistics. NAICS code is 513120, Periodical Publishers; PSC is 7630, Newspapers and Periodicals.