SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Indexing of Biomedical Literature - DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW)
- Notice Date
- 11/26/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 519120
— Libraries and Archives
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 105, Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20894
- Solicitation Number
- NIHLM2015358-UHP
- Archive Date
- 12/25/2014
- Point of Contact
- Uyen H Phuong, Phone: 301-496-6127
- E-Mail Address
-
phuongu@mail.nih.gov
(phuongu@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NIHLM2015358-UHP DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW). This Sources Sought Notice is for informational and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment by the Government. This notice is intended strictly for Market Research. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is conducting a market survey to help determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and/or HUBZone small businesses capable of serving the needs identified below. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Index Section of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is responsible for the indexing of biomedical and life sciences journals for MEDLINE, which is the primary component provided by the NLM National Center for Biotechnology (NCBI) as part of PubMed. NCBI was established at NLM in 1988 and serves as a national resource for molecular biology information by creating public databases (such as PubMed), conducting research in computational biology, developing software tools for analyzing genome data, and disseminating biomedical information (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/ncbi.html). Information pertaining to MEDLINE is available at the NLM Web site: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medline.html. Journals are selected for MEDLINE indexing by recommendations made by the NLM Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC), an advisory group of experts that has been established to review journal titles and assess their quality. Indexing policies and procedures used at NLM are detailed in the NLM Indexing Manual, which is supplemented by MeSH annotations and other indexing aids. The major effort required for indexing is the intellectual analysis of journal articles for subject matter and the application of appropriate subject terms drawn from the NLM controlled vocabulary, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Access to MeSH is available via the NLM MeSH Browser at: www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html. See also the NLM fact sheet on MeSH at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/mesh.html. The MEDLINE indexing work on this contract will be performed using the Data Creation and Maintenance System (DCMS, see Attachment F). DCMS was developed at NLM specifically for MEDLINE indexing and during the course of this contract, it is possible that this system may be modified or replaced with a more efficient production system. Access to DCMS is restricted to authorized users. For further information on DCMS see the NLM fact sheet http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/online_indexing_system.html In addition to indexing article citations with MeSH terms, indexers may also make links to other NCBI databases, such as Gene, via a process called Gene Indexing, which entails the creation of an annotated link between a record in the PubMed Gene database and a MEDLINE citation. As MEDLINE indexers perform subject analysis and indexing of a journal article they must recognize that an article requires Gene Indexing when the main point is basic genetic, chemical, or functional information about a gene or protein. The indexer must identify the appropriate record in the Gene database and create a link between the Gene record and the MEDLINE citation. The indexer then creates a short statement or sentence fragment, often extracted directly from the abstract or article text, that describes the new information about the gene or protein that is reported in the article. DCMS is programmed to interact with Gene so that Gene Indexing may be performed efficiently and accurately. The quantity of articles for MEDLINE indexing increases continuously and reaches new records every year. Because of this growth and the corresponding need to scale indexing capacity, NLM pursues many methods to improve indexing efficiency and streamline workflows. One example is the development of automated indexing software, referred to as the Medical Text Indexer (MTI), which has been an integral part of DCMS since 2002. MTI can be called upon at any time to assist the indexer by suggesting MeSH terms based upon data from the article title, abstract, and PubMed related citations. In 2011, the MTI algorithm was refined to create the MTI First Line (MTIFL) indexing tool, which provides a "first line" of automated indexing. MTIFL is then curated by a human indexer in a process called MTIFL Completion. In 2014, MTIFL Completion was evaluated in a pilot study in the Contract Indexer environment, and it is now being integrated into production DCMS indexing. MTIFL Completion allows NLM to provide access to the ever-expanding biomedical literature. The purpose of this contract is to obtain indexing for approximately 679,000 biomedical journal articles for MEDLINE, 75,000 MTIFL Completion articles, and creating approximately 82,000 Gene Links per year. Indexing is also sought for up to 7,800 chemical queries per year by chemical indexers, and for up to 2,100 records per year for the HSRProj database. These quantities are for the base year of a contract that is expected to have multiple annual options with the rate of growth being approximately 4% for journal articles, and a proportional number of gene links. The duration of this contract will consist of a one-year base period, followed by four option years for a total of five years. NLM expects each of these tasks: MEDLINE indexing, MTIFL Completion, Gene Links, chemicals, and HSRProj to be priced separately. A list of possible subject areas included for MEDLINE appears as Attachment A. Most of the journal articles are in English; the remainder are in various foreign languages, which accounted for approximately 43,000 of the articles indexed in 2013. Most of the journals currently indexed for MEDLINE are published exclusively on the Internet, with no print counterpart; therefore, only a small proportion of print journals will be used for MEDLINE indexing. There are no differences in the indexing requirements for print and online journals and indexers may be assigned either type of article depending upon their subject expertise and NLM needs. The Contractor must furnish services, qualified personnel, materials, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government under the terms of this contract, as needed to perform the work set in the attached Statement of Work (SOW). NLM pursues continuous improvements in indexing efficiency, functionality, and application. Improvement efforts are expected to continue during the time period of this contract with possible changes in MeSH, indexing software, indexing procedures, indexing policies, or indexing philosophy. 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-disable, 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. This Sources Sought notice is not a Request for Proposals (RFP), nor is an RFP available. Interested firms responding to this sources sought notice must adhere to the following: (a) Provide a capability statement demonstrating relevant experience, skills and ability to fulfill the Government's requirements for the above. The capability statement should contain enough sufficient detail for the Government to make an informed decision regarding your capabilities; however, the statement should not exceed 10 pages. (b) The capability statement must identify the responder's small business type and size; DUNS number; NAICS code; and technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and email addresses. (c) All capability statements must be submitted electronically no later than 4:30pm Eastern Standard time on Wednesday December 10, 2014 to Ms. Uyen Phuong at phuongu@mail.nlm.nih.gov. 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 pre-solicitation synopsis and 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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