Elsevier Inc.

Elsevier Inc., doing business as Reed Exhibitions, a subsidiary of RELX Inc., delivers scientific, technical, and medical information resources to the federal government as a prime contractor (98% of awards) through proprietary subscription platforms, databases, clinical training software, and specialized research tools. The company competes on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside designations across all recent awards, reflecting the proprietary nature of its intellectual property—government procurements of Elsevier's products are uniformly sole-source or compete among vendors offering equivalent solutions within the specialized information publishing space. Elsevier operates from Maryland Heights, Missouri, and functions primarily as a direct-to-agency vendor selling access to peer-reviewed journal collections, citation databases, clinical reference platforms, and technical reference repositories.

Elsevier's capability portfolio centers on four concrete service lines: scientific journal access (ScienceDirect, delivering millions of peer-reviewed articles across disciplines); bibliometric and citation platforms (Scopus, SciVal); clinical and medical literature (Embase, Clinical Skills); technical reference repositories (Knovel, with interactive tools for engineers); and specialized chemistry data (Reaxys). The company also delivers clinical training software (Shadow Health, Clinical Skills platform), nursing and healthcare eLearning content (Fundamentals of Nursing DCE, Emergency Nursing Orientation), research information management systems (Pure platform), and specialized diagnostic platforms (StatDx, Clinical Pharmacology with Calculators). Representative prime contract work includes a $16.76 million definitive contract with the National Library of Medicine (January 2025) for ScienceDirect journal access through 2029, a $18.2 million five-year agreement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (January 2025) for scientific books, journals, eBooks, and specialized databases, a $9.57 million Air Force Research Laboratory ScienceDirect subscription (January 2026) running through 2030, and a $6.34 million Defense Health Agency contract (July 2025) for Clinical Skills and American Society of Peri-Anesthesia Nurses platforms through 2030.

Customer concentration is moderate and fragmented across 136 distinct federal agencies. The top five customer entities by potential-value share account for 33% of combined dollars: the Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center Austin, Defense Health Agency, Department of the Navy Office of Naval Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Air Education and Training Command anchor the portfolio, but no single agency dominates the footprint. By award count, the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (31 awards), Defense Health Agency (26 awards), and several Veterans Affairs regional networks (16 and 14 awards each) represent the most frequent buyers, though their individual order values are typically modest ($1.4 million, $43.7 million, and $333 thousand combined respectively). The Defense Health Agency tension between award count and potential value is notable—26 awards carry $43.7 million in combined ceiling, reflecting a mix of large-value clinical training contracts alongside smaller subscription renewals.

Elsevier holds two major indefinite delivery vehicles. The Library of Congress IDV (awarded January 2024, $80 million ceiling through December 31, 2026) serves as the primary vehicle and has generated at least 16 documented delivery orders from agencies including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, Naval Education and Training Command, and the Department of Homeland Security, with task-order values ranging from $10,361 to $575,445. The National Institutes of Health / HHS IDV (awarded April 2025, $19.3 million ceiling through December 31, 2026) provides ScienceDirect, Scopus, Embase, and Reaxys access and has generated two documented delivery orders worth $1.8 million and $912,000. Both vehicles are single-award, sole-source arrangements structured as firm fixed-price subscriptions with no set-asides.

Activity has remained relatively stable over the past five years—19 awards in 2022 grew to a peak of 42 in 2024, then moderated to 33 in 2025 and 13 in 2026 year-to-date. The recompete cliff shows 33 awards (combined potential value $33.2 million) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing moderate exposure to contract renewal competition.

In its subcontractor role, Elsevier supplies content and platforms to prime contractors including Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (National Security Campus management and operation contract, multiple renewals 2024–2026), SRI International (NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, February 2025), Fluor Marine Propulsion (Naval Nuclear Laboratory management, October 2024), Guidehouse (DARPA Enterprise Support Services, September 2024), New York University (NSF Democratization of Data Analysis project, December 2023), and Alcyon Technical Services (NASA Glenn Research Center technical information services, 2021–2022). Sub-award scope includes ScienceDirect Freedom Collection access, Scopus renewals, and Knovel ebook collections supporting federal R&D, intelligence, and technical research missions.

Elsevier received one federal grant award: a $230,292 NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Project Grant (October 2024 through September 2025) to study R&D-to-market translation in place-based innovation ecosystems, with planned subawards to SRI International and New York University. The grant represents research sponsorship rather than information-services procurement, consistent with NSF's support for behavioral and policy research on innovation dynamics.

By NAICS and PSC coding, Elsevier's prime portfolio clusters around Periodical Publishers (219 awards) and Internet Publishing and Broadcasting (120 awards), with smaller concentrations in book publishing and web-based information services. PSC coding emphasizes Books and Pamphlets (162 awards), Newspapers and Periodicals (107 awards), and IT/telecom web-based subscription services (38 awards), reflecting the subscription-access model. The combined potential value of $310.1 million across 902 awards (98% prime, 2% sub) translates to an average award ceiling near $344,000, though individual contract and IDV sizes vary widely from renewal subscriptions under $30,000 to multi-million-dollar platform and journal access deals.