SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Data on Scientific Publications
- Notice Date
- 4/12/2006
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- National Science Foundation, Division of Contracts & Complex Agreements, DCCA, 4201 Wilson Boulevard Room 475, Arlington, VA, 22230
- ZIP Code
- 22230
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-DACS-060044
- Response Due
- 4/28/2006
- Archive Date
- 7/31/2006
- Description
- DESCRIPTION The National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) is seeking sources to help develop and present measures of patterns and trends in worldwide scientific publication. Publication data are used in the National Science Board?s Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI), and various special reports and analyses on U.S. and international science and engineering trends. This Request for Information (RFI) contains a draft statement of work that outlines four major Tasks, consisting of required activities (Task 1-3) and optional activities (Task 4) for a prospective competitive acquisition. In recent years, SEI has reported data from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) database. The NSF is seeking information on the ISI database and from organizations that maintain other databases that are either broadly comparable with the ISI database or have historical data that permit NSF to analyze time trends in scientific publications. Further, the NSF is seeking information about available analytic services that would facilitate research using the database and about how NSF choices about the length of the contract term (five or ten years) would affect prospective bidders. Task 1. Maintain a Suitable Publication Database. The prospective offeror shall maintain access to a worldwide, current database that provides high quality data on science and engineering publication, including data on patterns and trends in authorship, citation, and collaboration. The database shall provide such data for a period beginning no later than 1985. The database utilized shall be suitable for trend analysis and shall enable an analyst with access to the database to determine whether and to what extent similarities and differences over time result from characteristics of the database being analyzed (e.g., journal coverage) rather than from characteristics of the research community?s publication patterns. The database shall enable NSF and contractors selected to perform tasks to do the following: attribute authorship and citation credit for published articles to different U.S. institutions, institutional sectors, and states. attribute authorship and citation credit to different countries and country groupings. attribute authorship and citation credit to U.S. institutions, U.S. institutional sectors, U.S. states, and other countries and country groupings without extensive recoding of the data. attribute publication and citation credit for multi-author articles either by assigning proportional credit to each institutional author or by assigning full credit to each institutional author. attribute articles to both sub-fields and broad fields of science and engineering, including social sciences and psychology. Produce all tables and spreadsheets described in Task 2. In addition to the required data, it would be desirable for the database to: Credit publications to the individuals who author them (and not only to the institutions with which those individuals are affiliated). Attribute authorship and citation credit to foreign institutions without extensive recoding of the data. Include non-traditional measures of scientific output and knowledge flows. Possible measures include, but are not limited to, electronic publications beyond those that appear in conventional journals, publications on pre-print servers, measures of support and knowledge flows drawn from acknowledgements, and measures of participation in conferences. Include field classification(s) that are broadly compatible with both NSF?s WebCaspar field classification (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/database.cfm) and the field classification in SEI 2004. Task 2. Provide Analytic and Technical Support. Subtask 2a. Support for SEI (Mandatory). Once selected, the Contractor shall prepare electronic files of approximately 40 summary tables similar to those in SEI 2004 suitable for inclusion in the 2008, 2010, and 2012 editions of SEI (appendix tables 5-34-5-54; these are available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind04/pdf_v2.htm#c5). The selected Contractor will also provide extensive detailed data in the form of Excel and SAS files to support these tables. Timeline for SEI data delivery: a) SEI 2008: The selected Contractor shall produce time-series data from 1985 to 2005 or beyond and shall deliver these data to the COTR on or before March 31, 2007; b) SEI 2010: The selected Contractor shall produce time-series data from 1985 to 2007 or beyond and shall deliver these data to the COTR on or before March 31, 2009; and, c) SEI 2012: The selected Contractor shall produce time-series data from 1985 to 2009 and shall deliver these data to the COTR on or before March 31, 2011. The selected Contractor shall be prepared to report data on the following indicators: a) Publication counts: 1. Scientific and engineering publications for all countries, and selected regions and groups of countries (e.g., European Union, OECD, East Asia), as directed by the COTR. 2. U.S. publications by U.S. sector (academic, government, industry, non-profit, etc.). 3. Highly cited articles and journals by various percentiles (i.e. top 1%, top 5%, top 10%, etc.) for all countries, selected regions and groups of countries, and U.S. sector (academic, government, industry, non-profit, etc.). 4. All U.S. institutions by sector. 5. Breakdowns by field and subfield. b) Citation indicators: 1. Total citation counts and counts excluding self-citations (i.e., same country, same region, same group of countries, etc.) of scientific literature of nations and selected regions. 2. Matrix of cross-national, cross-regional, and within-region citations by country and selected regions. 3. U.S. sector total and matrix of cross sector citations. 4. U.S. institutions by sector, field, and sub-field. 5. Citations by nation, selected regions, U.S. sector, and U.S. institution normalized for number and/or share of publications, i.e. impact factors. 6. Breakdowns by field and subfield. c) Indicators of collaboration: 1. National, cross-national, cross-regional, and within-region co-authorship. 2. U.S. within- and cross-sector co authorship. Subtask 2b. Other technical support. The selected Contractor shall provide technical data analysis support for SRS and NSF analyses and publications other than SEI. Task 3. Data Access, Maintenance & Archiving. The NSF seeks to match publications data from the prospective offeror?s database with records from other databases so that NSF can conduct studies of selected topics concerning scientific productivity and knowledge flows (e.g., the relationship between individual productivity and career outcomes, knowledge spillovers across institutional and geographic boundaries). The full results of these studies shall be fully available to NSF for public dissemination. It is desirable that the selected Contractor would maintain output files for each of the indicators provided under the contract, in SAS or another major off-the-shelf code. These output files shall contain all information necessary to produce the indicators. In addition, the selected Contractor would produce and maintain a Master file of all these output data files, and a set of data extraction programs with which data from any combination of file elements can be extracted upon request. Following completion of the contract, the Master file would be delivered to the COTR and these files would become the property of the NSF. In addition, the Contractor shall guarantee access for eight years from the close of the contract to a confidential archive that includes the base data and materials (e.g., data requests, working tables, analytical algorithms, etc.) used to generate the tabulations that were released in SEI and other reports. This archive shall be used by NSF or its contractors to verify and correct data in the Master file. It would be desirable, upon completion of the contract, for the Contractor to expand access to this confidential archive for eight years from the close of the contract so that NSF or its contractors could conduct further analyses of the data or bona fide researchers could pursue original research. Task 4. Indicators Development. (Optional) Subtask 4a. Inter & Multi-disciplinarity Indicators. The selected Contractor would develop and test indicators of interdisciplinarity (integration of separate disciplines to address a research problem), and/or multidisciplinarity (coordinated research in two or more disciplines to address a research problem). Subtask 4b. Network Analysis. The selected Contractor would develop and test indicators of network structure (e.g., size, density, amounts and directions of influences, etc.) affecting scientific publication. Subtask 4c. Classifying Journal/Article Types. SRS currently classifies journals on a scale from most basic to fully applied. The selected Contractor would prepare a report reviewing the utility of this classification. The selected Contractor would develop up to three feasible classifications of journal and/or article types that could be incorporated into the journal database. Subtask 4d. Authorship indicators. The selected Contractor would conduct a methodological study of biases that may be introduced in bibliometric studies by crediting institutional rather than individual authorship. Subtask 4e. Visualization. The Contractor or directed sub-contractor shall develop and test visualization tools that will help non-expert readers grasp major patterns and trends in bibliometric data. Subtask 4f. Linkages between science and technology. Using data available in the database or augmenting the database with added elements, the selected Contractor would develop and test indicators of knowledge flows between science and technology. QUALIFIED OFFERORS RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS It is requested that interested qualified firms submit a statement of their capabilities to perform the work described in this notice. This statement should not exceed 10 pages. Efforts should be made to keep responses as BRIEF as possible, concentrating on substantive information essential for a proper review/consideration. The Government will not pay for the cost of response submission. ELIGIBILITY QUALIFIERS Prospective offerors must either (1) be able to license with ISI for suitable access to their database and be capable of providing needed services or (2) have or be able to license for suitable access to a database that is broadly comparable in scope and content with the ISI database and contains historical data suitable for analyzing trends over time. Prospective offerors must be able to retain suitable access to the data for eight years beyond the life of the contract. SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FOR QUALIFIED RESPONDENTS In accordance with FAR 15.201 and 15.202, the NSF will offer the opportunity for one-on-one meetings with qualified offerors. The purpose of this exchange is to improve the understanding of the Government?s requirements and industry capabilities, while allowing potential offerors to judge whether or how they can meet the Government?s requirements. Only the information submitted under this response will be considered during these meetings, additional information/amendments to responses after the close of this notice are not authorized. The information provided will also allow the Government to advise prospective offerors of their potential to be a viable competitor. After meeting with each qualified offeror, the Government will provide advisement as to if the offeror is a viable candidate for the prospective procurement. The Government?s determination will be based on the information submitted and is to be treated as advisement not final determination. This advisement does not preclude an offeror from submitting a proposal nor does it guarantee contract award to a likely candidate. Each response to this notice will be evaluated based on the aforementioned qualifiers; this will serve as the basis for evaluation. An electronic response can be sent to the National Science Foundation, at lorrell@nsf.gov. Facsimile responses are not authorized for this request. This is not a Request for Proposal therefore no contract will be awarded as resultant of this notice. The NSF will synopsize the competition for this requirement on or about June 15, 2006. It is anticipated that a request for proposal will be issued on or about July 12, 2006 with a proposal due date on or about the beginning of August 14, 2006.
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- SN01026983-W 20060414/060412222215 (fbodaily.com)
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