Service availability
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider's service to be available via the provider’s or third party’s service interface (the “native interface”), 24 hours per day 7 days per week 365 days per year. | Essential. | 99.8% compliance excluding problems beyond publisher’s control and with the exception of scheduled or routine maintenance. 99.8% compliance calculated on a quarterly basis. |
All electronic content. | 99.8% compliance (excluding problems beyond provider’s control.) |
| Provider measures availability or non-availability of the service. | Essential. | Measured at an agreed frequency [monthly or quarterly] but always annually. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance |
| Provider measures availability or non-availability of the service using an agreed service availability calculation. | Essential. |
Uses the HSCC Service Availability measurement: Total service availability in any reporting period will be taken as the lowest percentage availability figure from each of the measured services as calculated above. Some providers may use multiple metrics to calculate service availability in order to monitor compliance with the 99.8% target. The measurement used should be clarified with the purchasing authority at the point of purchase and updated in this section. |
All electronic content. | 100% compliance |
| Notification provided for scheduled maintenance to agreed timescales. | Essential. | At least 5 working days’ notice or at time of licensing. | All electronic content | Within 5 working days or at time of licensing. |
| Provides a point of contact for response to incidents. | Essential. | Provides a named contact and chain of command for response to incidents. This includes details of relevant contacts including helpdesk and technical personnel. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides notification of an incident. | Essential. | Within 2 hours of incident occurring. | All electronic content. | Within 2 working hours. |
| Provider can fix and restore service as a result of an incident to an agreed timeframe. | Essential. | Within 2 hours of incident occurring. | All electronic content. | Within 2 working hours. |
| Provides a report of any incident occurrence to an agreed timeframe. | Desirable. | Report to be supplied no more than 7 working days after incident resolution. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| New issues or editions are uploaded to servers within an agreed timeframe. | Essential. | Not later than day of print publication. | Ejournals and eBooks. | Within 24 hours of the day of publication of the printed version. |
| Access provided to new issues or editions within agreed timeframe. | Essential. | Not later than day of print publication. | Ejournals and eBooks. | Within 24 hours of the day of publication of the printed version. |
| Full tect content is uploaded to the server to agreed timescales. | Essential. |
Full text content to be uploaded within 5 working days of receipt of content from publishers. Where aware of habitual delays to full text content provision. Provider demonstrates steps have been taken with the relevant publisher partner to mitigate further delays to ongoing uploads. |
Full text databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Maintains full text content size of database. | Essential. | Full text component of database not reduced by more than 10% annually. | Full text databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides benchmark with which to measure full text content removal. | Essential. | Baseline measurement based on number of full text journal titles at time of licensing. Reviewed on an annual basis. | Full text databases. | 100% compliance. |
Service access
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provides access for users to the service and content via an Access and Identity Management System (AIMS). | Essential. | Provider is registered as a live entity in the JISC OpenAthens Federation. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Supports Security Assertion Mark-up Language (SAML). | Essential. | Provider is registered as a live entity in the JISC OpenAthens Federation. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Policies and procedures are in place to work closely with JISC to implement NHS OpenAthens changes. | Essential. | Provider adheres to action notifications and action requirements sent out by JISC for the NHS OpenAthens service. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Policies and procedures are in place to work closely with JISC to implement NHS OpenAthens changes. | Essential. | Provider supports JISC delivery and access via NHS OpenAthens authentication through a main point of contact on all service and support needs. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Policies and procedures are in place to work closely with JISC to implement NHS OpenAthens changes. | Essential. | Registers the main point of contact (named person, dedicated email and telephone number) in the JISC OpenAthens SP interface. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Supports dispersed users. | Essential. | Access available via a portal that doesn’t require entry of an NHS OpenAthens password e.g. IP (internet protocol) authentication, use of Referral URL, EZ Proxy, WAYFLess URL, proxy access. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Compliant with KBART standard. | Essential. | Fully compliant or where partially-compliant can demonstrate acceptable solution in place with nationally commissioned Link Resolver supplier. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Complies with OpenURL Link Resolver standards. | Essential. | Fully compliant or where partially-compliant can demonstrate acceptable solution in place with nationally commissioned Link Resolver supplier. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides title information to Link Resolver and A-Z list vendors. | Essential. | Can provide to link resolver and A-Z list vendors with the following information about each title in the Licensed Material: Title, ISSN or eISSN, DoI (where appropriate), previous title(s) if appropriate, previous ISSN or eISSN if appropriate, first volume and issue made available. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides data changes to agreed frequency for Link Resolver KnowledgeBase. | Essential. | Changes to data provided as frequently as the data changes. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides WAYFLESS access at article-level. | Desirable. | Provides WAYfless URL for eJournals and eBooks to title of URL. | Ejournals, ebooks. | n/a |
| Provides WAYFLESS access at article-level. | Desirable. | Provides JISC NHS OpenAthens re-director links to knowledge resources using the authorities prefix. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | n/a |
| Policies and procedures are in place to notify the nationally commissioned Link Resolver and Knowledge Base service of changes. | Essential. | Provider supports the national Link Resolver and Knowledge Base delivery through a main point of contact on all service and support needs. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Policies and procedures are in place to notify the nationally commissioned Link Resolver and Knowledge Base service of changes. | Essential. | Provides at least 8 weeks’ notice (in advance of the changes becoming active) of changes to provider’s platform linking schemes, such as changes to title or article level links. | Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance. |
| Ensures permanent access for content purchased in perpetuity. | Essential. | Provides a method of perpetual access. | Ejournals and ebooks. | 100% compliance. |
| Ensures permanent access for content purchased in perpetuity. | Desirable. | Ensures perpetual usage rights as per the original Agreement. | Ejournals and ebooks. | n/a |
Technical
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meets the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. | Desirable. | Ensures Service and content meets level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) as a minimum. | All electronic content. | n/a |
| Meets the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. | Desirable. | Ensures service and content works on the most commonly used assistive technologies - including screen magnifiers, screen readers and speech recognition tools. | All electronic content. | n/a |
| Meets the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. | Desirable. | Provider includes people with disabilities in user research. | All electronic content. | n/a |
| Meets the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. | Essential. | Provider has an accessibility statement that explains how accessible the service is. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Desirable. | Complies with W3C standards. | All electronic content. | n/a |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Desirable. | Complies with ISO 9241-210:2019:. | All electronic content. | n/a |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Essential. | Ensures service and content is available and accessible on either Port 80 (for world wide web) or Port 443 (https). | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Desirable. | Ensures service works with partial functionality on IE 9, 10 and 11. | All electronic content. | n/a |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Essential. | Ensures service works with full functionality on Google Chrome 30 (Stable Channel) - latest version. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Essential. | Ensures service works with Mozilla Firefox (Stable Channel) - latest version. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Essential. | Ensures service works with full functionality on Microsoft Edge (versions in support). | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Meets general industry technical standards. | Essential. | Ensures service works with full functionality on Apple Safari (versions in support). | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Delivers content through mobile and digital devices. | Essential. | Provides ability to download to mobile and digital devices and provides service apps for such mobile devices; OR Offers a separate web interface optimised for all mobile devices OR Offers a fully responsive interface that will make it unnecessary to use alternative websites or apps. |
All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Delivers content through mobile and digital devices. | Essential. | Provides service apps for mobile devices compatible with the Mac/iOS platform. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Enables content to be discoverable through a variety of search options. | Essential. | Discoverable through search options such as (but not limited to) native interface, Resource Discovery Systems. Library management systems. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides downloadable MARC records. | Essential. | Functionality to download MaRC records with embedded order data, including frequency of publication and estimated date of publication. | Ebooks. | 100% compliance. |
User support
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provides a point of contact for helpdesk and support services. | Essential. | Provides a named helpdesk point of contact (dedicated email and telephone number). | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Responds to complaints within an agreed timeframe. | Essential. | Within 1 working day of receipt and provides confirmation of action to be taken within 2 working days. | All electronic content. | 100% of all complaints received. |
| Responds to general enquiries within an agreed timeframe. | Essential. | Within 2 working days of receipt. | All electronic content. | 100% of all general enquiries received. |
| Resolves and closes general enquiries received within an agreed timeframe. | Essential. | 95% of all general enquiries resolved within 18 working days. | All electronic content. | 95% of all general enquiries resolved within 18 working days. |
| Offers training and education programmes to support usage. | Essential. | Provides a range of training options (online, face-to-face, or blended learning). | All electronic content. | Compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Offers training and education programmes to support usage. | Desirable. | Offers additional training whenever the user interface to the service is substantially changed. | All electronic content. | n/a |
Service notifications
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provides notification of duplication of content purchases. | Essential. | Has a standard procedure in place to notify purchasers of any duplication of content purchases. | All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides notification of any anticipated material or substantial native interface changes (e.g. major redesign). | Essential. | Within 30 working days prior to changes going live. | All electronic content. | Within 30 days. |
| Provides notification of any significant change to users’ navigation of the native interface. | Essential. | Within 30 working days prior to changes going live. | All electronic content. | Within 30 days. |
| Provides notification of any significant change which may result in an adverse effect on authorised users access to or use of the licensed materials. | Essential. | Within 30 working days prior to changes going live. | All electronic content. | Within 30 days. |
| Provides notification of the withdrawal of goods or licensed materials. | Essential. |
At least 60 working days’ notice prior to the withdrawal date of titles, to include eJournal titles moving publisher. Notice should be provided within 14 days after removal for content for which the Provider no longer retains the right to provide or which it has reasonable grounds to believe infringes copyright; or is defamatory, obscene, unlawful or otherwise objectionable. |
Print journals All electronic content. |
At least 60 days. |
| Provides a clear schedule to set out the update frequency for content sources within aggregated databases. | Desirable. | Provides or facilitates the download of a title list which includes as a minimum:
|
Databases. | n/a |
| Provides notification of new content additions to agreed timescales. | Desirable. |
Monthly. In either printed or tagged electronic form, sorted by subject. In the case of full text databases this would include addition or removal of new full text journal titles to the databases. |
All electronic content. | Monthly. |
Service reporting
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attends contract and service review meetings at an agreed frequency with the purchasing authority. | Essential. | At least quarterly and always annually. | All. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides a regular contract management and service report to the purchasing authority at agreed timescales. | Essential. | At least quarterly and always annually. Includes a summary of performance for key service standards, SLAs and KPIs in regular contract management and service report. |
All. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides or facilitates the collection of monthly usage data. | Essential. | Usage metrics are COUNTER 5 compliant. Usage data is available by 21st of the month. |
Ejournals, ebooks, databases. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides or facilitates the collection of monthly usage data. | Essential. | Usage metrics are COUNTER compliant; and/or Provides usage metrics on items such as page impressions, topics, search terms, sessions. route of access. |
Evidence summaries. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides details of the number of Open Access articles published in relation to the total number of articles published in the licensed materials. | Essential. | 100% compliance - annual reporting. | Electronic journals. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides details of the number of Open Access articles published in relation to the total number of articles published in the licensed materials. | Essential. | 100% compliance - annual reporting. | Electronic journals. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides details of any journal title which has converted to full Open Access and is no longer offered under the agreed purchasing model. | Essential. | 100% compliance - annual reporting. | Electronic journals. | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
| Provides number of fully Open Access journals published in the Licensed Materials (annual). | Essential. | 100% compliance - annual reporting. | Databases only | 100% compliance with reporting requirements. |
Measurement and related payment
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | Target | Applies to | Key performance indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provides a service credit in the event of any unscheduled downtime or total loss of Service occurring. | Essential. | Provides a percentage reduction against the fee paid. Credit percentage agreed as follows against quarterly or annual fee. Service availability credit percentage: 99.8% to 100% - 0% 99.0% to 99.79% - 3% 98.0% to 98.99% - 5% 97% to 97.99% - 7% 97.8% or below - 10%. It's advisable that the bidder clarifies with the purchasing authority at the point of purchase how the credits should be issued. |
All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides a service credit in the event that the full specified functionality of the service is not available. | Essential. | Provides a percentage reduction against the fee paid. Credit percentage agreed as follows against quarterly or annual fee. Service availability credit percentage: 99.8% to 100% - 0% 99.0% to 99.79% - 3% 98.0% to 98.99% - 5% 97% to 97.99% - 7% 97.8% or below - 10%. It's advisable that the bidder clarifies with the purchasing authority at the point of purchase how the credits should be issued. |
All electronic content. | 100% compliance. |
| Provides a service credit in the event that the total size of full text content within a database is reduced by more than 10%. | Essential. | Provides a percentage reduction against the Fee paid. Credit percentage agreed as follows against quarterly or annual fee. Full text content availability credit percentage: 90.0% to 100% - 0% 80.0% to 89.9% - 3% 70.0% to 79.9% - 5% 60% to 69.9% - 7% 59.9% or below - 10%. |
Databases only | 100% compliance. |
| Provides a refund in the event that the whole, parts, or an item of the licensed materials is removed or withdrawn for any reason. | Essential. | Refunds that part of fee paid for the remaining un-expired portion of the subscription term (proportional to the amount of the licensed materials or goods unavailable.) | Print journals All electronic content. |
100% compliance. |
| For multi-year subscriptions, adjusts the fee on an annual basis in the event that the proportion of Open Access materials increases annually. | Essential. | ully compliant or Demonstrates a subscription model that does not include Open Access materials in the pricing methodology for that model. |
Electronic journals and databases | 100% compliance. |