Translate Your Scientific and Academic Submission With Ease

“Scientific knowledge has long been shared through translation. For example, Émilie de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet, an 18th-century physicist, was the first person to translate Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation into French,” according to Nos Langues, a Canadian language research website. 

Have a paper that you’d like to submit but are too afraid your English isn’t up to par? That’s where technical translation comes in. Today, we’ll talk about what technical translation is, the importance of technical translators and the benefits of technical translation services. We’ll see what they can do to help you with your scientific and academic research.

Technical translation has long been the go-to for being able to translate scientific papers and other academic papers into different languages for many people to understand. 

Today, let’s find out just how vital it is for technical translators to translate your research papers and other documents.

What is technical translation?

Technical translation is the process of translating rigorous technical documents, such as academic papers, scientific research, and even engineering projects. It is a special type of translation because of its specialized subject matter. 

The role of translation in the academic and scientific fields has had its history. Many academic papers before or after submission to a journal have undergone translation, in order to be disseminated to the public, worldwide. 

Technical translations allow for the scientific paper to be understood by all, in however many languages you need to translate it in. It allows for the scientific paper to be accurately represented in the translation of your work.

Trusting technical translators rather than automatic translations to translate your work is old news. Automatic translation does not have the scientific and technical backgrounds of automatic translation, which will just provide a word-for-word translation, rather than a translation that is translated with the concepts that you want to show in different languages. 

Technical translations are equipped with the current terminology of the specialized field they are handling. That means that all your translations will be standardized with the glossaries of scientific terms, with the background of scientific translators. How? Let’s find out now. 

What is the importance of technical translators?

Technical translators are extremely important to the field of academic research. They are versed in the field of technical translation, with a handle of your source language (the language you’re translating from) and the target language (the language you’re translating into).

Technical translation is different from any other translation because it relies not just on the source languages and the target languages, but on background skills that technical translators have. That’s why these translations are so technical, because they are done by only the most skilled linguists. Technical translators for scientific papers to be submitted in academic journals are versed in scientific and academic fields themselves. They’re the most skilled linguists that can be found with translation services providers. 

If you provide your technical terminology, with scientific and academic glossaries, the technical translators can use your own glossaries for the technical translation. Allowing the technical translator to work with your own terminologies is standard practice with technical translation, which we’ll find out in the next section.

Why Are Technical Translators Ideal for Specialized Translations?

Technical translation services are where you can find technical translators who know how to keep terminologies consistent. One hallmark of scientific texts is its particularity with terminologies, so keeping them consistent throughout is ideal for technical translations. Technical translators have the qualifications to translate your scientific texts, making sure that they’re consistent throughout.

I chose experts True Language and Tomedes for their global technical translation services that deal with science and engineering. They both have the backing of the American Translator’s Association, which states the importance of hiring qualified technical translators, because “only the experts can convey the intended meaning.” 

True Language, in particular, has the expertise of science and engineering, with terminology management. True Language has won an award for the top B2B provider in Atlanta, GA, USA. According to True Language, “terminology helps to ensure transparency and consistency in all documentation, and enhances linguistic correctness.”

Meanwhile, Tomedes’ technical translation services are all-encompassing, but done only by expert linguistics trained in the field of science, engineering, or academia. Their translators have many languages at their fingertips, allowing you to achieve your objectives in any language of the world. According to CEO Ofer Tirosh, Tomedes translators are more than just translators, they’re creators, academicians, and more. 

True Language and Tomedes have perfected the art form of technical translation, so only highly qualified translators will handle your technical documents. 

As stated in “Translating Technical Texts,” a paper published by the University of Manchester and previously published in the Cambridge Handbook of Translation, “Technical translators are expected to recognise and understand the terminological references…This requires translators to deal with numerous challenges that inevitably arise through contextual variations in terminological usage. This competence or know-how is among the elements that constitute the practice of technical translation; it extends beyond familiarity with bilingual or multilingual terminology and also encompasses conceptual understanding.”

Familiarity with the terminology in the scientific field is necessary in technical translation, but not only that. It requires more, more than simple translation.

How to find the right technical translation services?

The right technical translation services can be found online. If you’ve ever Googled technical translation services, you’ll find it’s not as effective as looking at translation review websites. Looking at the technical translation services’ reviews is equivalent to knowing how they’re going to treat you based on how they’ve treated clients in the past. 

Go with service providers that have a high client satisfaction rate. For example, Tomedes has a 97% client satisfaction rate because they believe that the client is at the heart of their philosophy. As you will see from review sites, those services with a higher client satisfaction rate have a high number of satisfied clients after the work is done. That’s how you can tell that these clients themselves have recommended the service provider.

Next, look at the translator’s portfolios, and request them from the service providers. As we’ve said previously in the article, the translator’s skill is of importance. By looking at their portfolios, you can see their translation accuracy and quality, and see whether they’ll be able to perform the same way with you. The translators you need are skilled translators, so go with a translation service that’s more than just translation.

In Closing

How can a technical translator help you publish in a journal? Well, if you have limited English proficiency, for example, you can look to technical translation services to translate your paper into English. That way, it has a better chance of being published in the academic journal of your choice. 

A study from Taylor & Francis Online says “The technical translator has to take into account the audience to a more marked extent.” This is because the audience, especially of an academic journal, is usually composed of those in that particular field. 

The scientific field is filled with terminologies that may not be understood by an untrained translator. And yet, it can be wholly understood and transformed into another language/s by a technical translator. That’s the beauty of technical translation: your concepts will be understood by the world.