SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Manuscript Handling
- Notice Date
- 9/22/2015
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 519130
— Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Office of Acquisitions, Office of Management, 530 Davis Drive, Durham, North Carolina, 27713, United States
- ZIP Code
- 27713
- Solicitation Number
- NIEHS2015051
- Archive Date
- 10/22/2015
- Point of Contact
- Christopher J. Fisher, Phone: 9195410428
- E-Mail Address
-
christopher.fisher@nih.gov
(christopher.fisher@nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC, is conducting a market survey to determine the interest and capability of small businesses including HUBZone, 8(a), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Firms, Small Disadvantaged Business, and Woman-Owned eligible to compete under NAICS 519130 with a Size Standard of 500 employees for Manuscript Handling. Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH/NIEHS), is a scholarly online-only journal published once a month. Since it is a publication supported by the Federal government, content published in EHP is completely open access, and is free of any author publication charges or page fees. The flow of new manuscripts is vital to the life of a journal. Without content, a publication can't succeed. The manuscript submission and tracking system is the first interface that an author is presented with once they have decided to publish with the journal, so it is critical that they have a positive user experience. Likewise, the journal staff and its contractors must interface with this system on a daily basis to keep work moving between the editorial office, the Associate Editors, Reviewers, and the authors themselves. Any breakdowns or inefficiencies will be felt by a vast number of parties, and could delay the sensitive metric of time to publication. EHP seeks to update its manuscript submission and tracking system. This document outlines the requirements of the system and the company that will support it. Technical Requirements The following technical requirements must be met in order for the system to be considered for use by EHP: 1. The system must accept manuscripts in both Microsoft Word and TeX (LaTeX, RevTeX, etc., and their associated BibTex and style files) formats and successfully build them into a preview PDF with other file formats automatically. 2. The system must accept a wide variety of figure file formats, including PDF, TIFF, EPS, BMP, and JPG, and must successfully build them into a preview PDF with the manuscript and other file formats automatically. 3. The system must accept supplemental material uploads from authors: these will include text documents, figures, tables, video, audio, and data sets, among others. There should be no restrictions on the file types that authors can provide. These materials must also be accessible to the Associate Editors and Reviews during the peer review process. 4. Ability for EHP to build custom submission questions and fields for authors, and to make changes to these questions directly without intervention from the provider's tech support staff. 5. The system must allow EHP to define required metadata fields, both during initial setup of the product and during the normal use of the product, without intervention from the provider's tech support staff. 6. The system must offer a role-based permissions system for users, so new users can be assigned permissions to perform their job function quickly and easily. 7. The system must log email correspondence sent to the editors, reviews, and authors, including attachments. 8. The system must track all dates associated with the submission, peer review, and acceptance of the paper. 9. The system must provide a mechanism for creating and using email templates for each peer review and production task. These emails must allow for the use of URL links and merge data to automatically pull relevant manuscript metadata (titles, authors, manuscript number, DOI) into the emails. 10. The system must allow user self-service options for updating contact information and resetting passwords. 11. The system must be capable of sending automated reminder messages to authors, editors, associate editors, and reviewers on a schedule that is defined by EHP. Configuration options must allow these reminders to be sent both before and after the assignment is due. 12. A robust administration portal is needed to ensure that EHP can directly modify the workflow, author upload requirements, and various staff interfaces. 13. The system must allow easy assignment of peer review tasks to reviewers and Associate Editors. 14. The system must contain an integrated Production module to track and administer production tasks after manuscript acceptance. 15. Reviewers and Editors must be able to insert unavailable dates that will restrict the flow of new assignments to them during these times. 16. The system must be capable of exporting manuscript files (Word or TeX documents, figures, supplemental materials, and all associated files) in a Zip bundle, along with XML metadata (JATS XML must be supported), and transmitting it as a bundle via ftp to an external server. 17. The system must allow EHP to define the production workflow steps, and allow EHP to directly modify those steps as needed. The system must also provide an overview of all manuscripts in production, with relevant dates that each step was completed. 18. The ability to directly upload manuscripts to the iThenticate/CrossCheck system is required. There must be options for both automatic upload of all content, and manual upload of selected manuscripts only. The resulting "similarity score" must be displayed within the user interface of the system. 19. A system for compiling articles into an issue must be included in the production module. 20. The system must include a People database for allowing users to register and keep basic contact and login information on file. It must also allow for a data transfer from the People database of our current system, ensuring that accounts for current users are transferred to the new system. 21. Custom flags for both manuscripts and people must be supported. 22. The system must be capable of assigning DOIs to all articles, using the preferred format of the publisher. 23. ORCiD integration is required. Authors must be able to key-in and lookup their ORCiD IDs (and the IDs of their co-authors) from within the submission interface, and users should also be allowed to log into the system using their ORCiD IDs. 24. Ringgold integration is required. Authors must be able to select their institution from the Ringgold database during submission of their paper. 25. Co-author verification must be supported, whereby co-authors will be prompted by the system via email to confirm that they have acted as an author on the uploaded manuscript. 26. The system must be web-based and hosted by the provider (either directly or via a hosting agreement) - NIEHS will not host this system on our servers. As a web-based system, uptime is critical, so scheduled maintenance periods must be communicated to the government well in advance, and unscheduled maintenance periods must be kept to a minimum. 27. A robust reporting system must be included in the package. The reporting system should offer both "canned" reports and the ability to create ad-hoc reports. Such reports must be run and delivered to users on a schedule. 28. The provider must include an online Help system for users, with documentation on all major features. Help videos should also be accessible online. Customer Service Robust and responsive customer service is essential to the success of any product. Questions and problems always occur, and timely, accurate responses must be provided in those scenarios. A Project Manager/Customer Support contact must be assigned to the EHP account at all times, and direct phone and email contact information for this individual (and for a backup) must be provided to the government. In the event that our support contact will change, at least two (2) weeks' notice must be provided to the government. In addition, the government reserves the right to request that a new customer service representative be assigned to our account if we find performance of the rep to be in question. Experience with Scholarly/Scientific Publishers The scholarly and scientific publishing landscape is far different from the commercial publishing landscape, and contains significantly different requirements. EHP seeks to partner with a company that has significant experience catering directly to the needs of scholarly and scientific journal publishers. Companies offering systems that have been inadequately repurposed from commercial needs will not be considered ("inadequate" being defined as not meeting the technical needs listed previously). This is expected to be a Requirements Contract for a one (1) year base period and four (4) one (1) year option periods. Interested firms responding to this market survey must include the solicitation notice number and provide the following: (a) Company name, address, phone number, primary contact(s), e-mail address, business classification/size, and DUNS number. (b) Capability statement that demonstrates your experience, skills, and capability to fulfill the Governments requirements. The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail so that the Government can determine whether your firm can meet the requirements. (c) References. Responses to this Sources Sought Notice should be limited to no more than fifteen (15) pages and must be submitted by or before the closing date of Wednesday, October 7, 2015 by 1:00 pm edt. Responses may be submitted in MS Word format via email to Christopher Fisher, Contract Specialist, at christopher.fisher@nih.gov or mailed to either of the following addresses: USPS: NIEHS - Attn: Christopher Fisher P.O. Box 12874 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Fed-Ex: NIEHS - Attn: Christopher Fisher Keystone Bldg., Room 1047 530 Davis Drive Morrisville, NC 27560 Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a combined synopsis/solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
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