Electronic Access via the Internet to Oxford University Press Journals

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agriculture Research Service, National Agricultural Library (NAL) intends to award a sole source fixed price purchase order to the vendor: Oxford University Press (OUP), located in Oxford, United Kingdom for the purpose of electronic access via the internet for all USDA users to all Oxford University Press electronic journals for the period of January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011 This electronic access shall include perpetual data rights to the content that is made available to USDA during the performance period. The contractor shall provide, upon termination of the contract and upon a request from USDA , all subscribed to database content in a mutually agreed-upon non-proprietary format. NAL is mandated by U.S.C. 3125a to serve as the primary agricultural information of the United States. One of it's functions is the comprehensive acquisition of material that contains reports of original research, new scientific findings, information of potential historical value, and information that would support USDA's research. In order to meet it's mission, NAL shall obtain access, with perpetual data rights, to journals that are only available to OUP. Scientists and researchers at large decide where to publish their findings based on the impact factors of specific journals. Moreover, many journals contain articles that chronicle the specific method and results of scientific research and each article becomes part of the permanent scientific record. Once the findings are published as a journal article, the content becomes the property of the publisher and can only be obtained from the publisher. Subscriptions to OUP journals are available through subscription agents. However, subscription agents cannot sell perpetual data rights that are the property of the publisher. Subscription agents provide libraries and businesses with a variety of recordkeeping services to manage large numbers of subscriptions, but they do not purchase and resell content. Subscription agents cannot provide perpetual rights to subscribed content because they do not own the rights. Only OUP as the copyright holder of it's journals, can and will provide perpetual access rights to it's content. OUP Journals are among the most important in their field. OUP Journals are among the most requested by ARS scientists and researchers. NAL shall have perpetual access rights in order to collect and preserve the full archives of the journal content to which it subscribes in order to establish and maintain a comprehensive database. Access to material only available from this publisher is essential to fulfilling the Agency's mission. Anticipated Award date is December 13, 2010