Notice of Intent to Sole Source: Altmetric Explorer Subscription 2021

The National Forest Service Library (NFSL) R&D Knowledge Management and Communications, Washington Office, Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), Fort Collins, CO, intends to issue a firm-fixed price, sole source award, on behalf of the USDA Forest Service, to Digital Science and Research Solutions Inc., 625 Massachusetts Avenue, 2nd Floor, Cambridge, MA, 02139 for Altmetric Explorer Subscription 2021. Background: The National Forest Service Library (NFSL) provides reference, scientific, and technical information services to all Forest Service personnel across the country, including standards used by engineers, scientists, and construction professionals. The headquarters for the program is located in Fort Collins, CO. Nature and/or Description of Required Services to Meet Agency's Need: Provide the ability to track usage in NFS land management planning documents, thorough mining of news sources including intelligent recognition of formatted citations, translation of references across link-shortening services, and out of the box access to historical information in an industry-spanning context, all supported using both vendor-provided web tools as well as web services that allow repackaging of the information on agency intranet platforms. A need for data services that describe - alternative metrics of scholarly works across key outlets on the Internet. R&D is regularly challenged to measure not just its outputs but how those research products are used. Alternative scholarly impact metrics (altmetrics) attempt to track how others refer to or use scholarly works by searching across other scholarly works, news releases, blogs, policy documents, social media, and scientific forums. Reports both measure the numbers and allow customers both internal and external to drill down to the source. Altmetrics are thus more rapid than traditional measures solely based on citation frequency and catch how much broader groups of the public are using the research. Products will need to provide both publication-specific details and also reports aggregated by customer-tailored organizational groups, helping align results with budgets and line authorities. The proposed contract action is for services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals, should not be construed as commitment by the Government for any purpose other than market research, and all documentation shall become the property of the Government. Any information submitted by respondents to this synopsis is strictly voluntary. The Government will not pay for any information that is submitted by respondents to this notice of proposed contract action. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract action is based on Agency data systems already connected to and using these data services (both internally and by the hundreds of thousands of customers who each year visit the R&D sites with the use of Altmetric Badges), and key personnel have been trained in the provided services. The anticipated award date is May 20, 2021. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 519190 and the size standard is $30.0 million. A solicitation will not be issued. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. Point of contact for this action is Maritza Salgado, Procurement and Property Services (PPS), Field Procurement Operations, USDA Forest Service at maritza.salgado@usda.gov.