R--Analyzing PubMed Searches

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR subpart 12.6 as supplemented with additional information contained in this notice. The procurement is being conducted under Simplified Acquisition Procedures in accordance with FAR Part 13.5. This announcement constitutes the formal Request for Quotation (RFQ) and a written solicitation WILL NOT be issued. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through March 2007 Federal Acquisition Regulation revision, which includes the consolidation of all Federal Acquisition Circulars 2005-16. This acquisition is 100% small business set aside and the NAICS code is 611710 with a small business size standard of $6.5 million. It is the intent of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to procure professional services to formulate strategies to search PubMed to detect potential indexing errors in MEDLINE citations. MEDLINE is the major component of PubMed, NLM's free online bibliographic information and retrieval service (available at pubmed.gov). Subject indexing for MEDLINE consists of application of appropriate subject headings from NLM's controlled vocabulary, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). EVALUATION CRITERIA: The technical proposal will receive paramount consideration over price or cost factors. The evaluation will be based, in addition to price, on a written quotation detailing the demonstrated capabilities of the prospective vendor in relation to the needs of the project as set forth in the Statement of Work. Offerors must submit information sufficient to allow NLM to evaluate the following criteria for award. Interested parties must submit email requests for sample tasks. Criterion A: Demonstrated ability to formulate complicated PubMed searches to identify potential indexing errors, and in marking individual MEDLINE citations for correction of indexing errors (40 points); Criterion B: The Contractor's knowledge of MeSH and MEDLINE indexing rules (30 points); Criterion C: The Contractor's knowledge of PubMed, PubMed search capabilities, search strategy storage mechanisms, and ability to formulate complicated PubMed search strategies (30 points). This requirement is for a base year with options for four (4) successive one-year periods. The quoter shall include all information which documents and/or supports the qualification criteria in one clearly marked section of its quotation. ** The Statement of Work (SOW) of this requirement is immediately followed below. ** All proposals received within 25 days from the date of publication of this synopsis will be considered by NLM. Responses must be in writing and must be received in this office by April 23, 2007, 4:30 P.M. (Eastern Standard Time), and must include pricing information and meet the criteria requirement. All responses from responsible sources will be considered. Inquires regarding this procurement may be made to the National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions Management, 8600 Rockville Pike, Building 38A, Room B1N20, Bethesda, Maryland 20894, Attention: Uyen H. Phuong, Contracting Officer, on +1 (555) 000-0000. The contractor shall comply with all applicable Federal, State, and local laws, executive orders, rules and regulations applicable to its performance under this order. Full text of clauses and provisions are available at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR): http://www.arnet.gov/far/. The FAR provisions and clauses sited herein are incorporated by reference into this solicitation. Offerors are advised to propose in accordance with the provision of FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors Commercial Items (September 2006). Offerors are advised to provide with their offer a completed copy of the following provisions: FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications Commercial Items (November 2006). The following FAR clauses apply to this acquisition: FAR 52.212-4, C reference into this solicitation. Offerors are advised to propose in accordance with the provision of FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors Commercial Items (September 2006). Offerors are advised to provide with their offer a completed copy of the following provisions: FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications Commercial Items (November 2006). The following FAR clauses apply to this acquisition: FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions Commercial Items (February 2007); FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive orders Commercial Items (November 2006). ** Statement of Work A. Background Information: The National Library of Medicine (NLM) indexes more than 600,000 articles annually from more than 5,000 journals for MEDLINE, NLM's premier bibliographic database that contains over 15 million citations to journal articles in the life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. MEDLINE is the major component of PubMed, NLM's free online bibliographic information and retrieval service (available at pubmed.gov). Subject indexing for MEDLINE consists of application of appropriate subject headings from NLM's controlled vocabulary, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Indexing policies are specified in the NLM Indexing Manual, technical memoranda, and other indexing aids. Nearly 200 individuals, including NLM staff, contractors, and staff at cooperating national and international centers participate in indexing for MEDLINE/PubMed. Although there is a high degree of quality assurance review and computerized checking and validation built into the MEDLINE indexing production stream, it is inevitable because of the large volume of work that a few indexing errors may appear in completed MEDLINE citations. The purpose of this project is to formulate strategies to search MEDLINE to detect potential indexing errors, perform those searches on newly-indexed citations on a regular, recurring basis, and to review the search results to identify specific indexing errors that require correction. B. Purpose and Objective: To acquire services to formulate strategies to search PubMed to detect potential indexing errors in MEDLINE citations, perform those searches on newly-indexed citations on a regular, recurring basis, and to review the search results to identify specific indexing errors that require correction. C. Contractor Requirements: Using advanced PubMed search capabilities, the Contractor will formulate PubMed search strategies to identify those citations that are likely to include an indexing error (usually an inappropriate MeSH heading or a missing MeSH heading). For a very simple example, a search would be developed to retrieve citations with the text word - mouse or - mice in the citation title or abstract, but without the MeSH heading MICE. The Contractor will print out the results of each PubMed search performed, and hand mark the printout to indicate which MeSH term(s) should be added or deleted. Actual maintenance of MEDLINE citations will be performed by NLM. The Contractor will also store each PubMed search strategy to be rerun at approximately one-month intervals to detect errors in newly-added citations. There are currently about 40 existing stored searches to detect indexing errors, and the Contractor will run those at approximately one-month intervals, but it is anticipated that additional searches will be needed in the future. The Contractor will submit the marked printouts to NLM not later than the first week of each month. If the Contractor works at a site outside of the Washington, DC metropolitan area, the marked printouts will be sent to NLM via FedEx. The Contractor will also submit monthly reports indicating how many searches were performed and how many corrections were marked on citation printouts; such monthly reports should be submitted to NLM within the first week of each month. A printout must be produced for the entire retrieval for each search. Each citation must be reviewed, and when appropriate, manually annotated to indicate a MeSH heading or headings should be deleted, and/or manually annotated. D. Government Responsibilities: NLM will provide the overall guidance and approval of submitted work. NLM will communicate to the Contractor the specific - topic for which a new, additional search strategy is needed to detect indexing errors (the contractor will not on their own identify new - topics for which new search strategies might be needed). If the Contractor works outside of the Washington, DC metropolitan area, the NLM will provide Contractor with FedEx airbills for shipment of marked search results.