Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: There are current projects to translate Cochrane content into various languages to improve the availability of its content. In Korea, we started collaborated efforts (medicine, oriental medicine, nursing, and public health area) to translate Cochrane Reviews using professional translation and editing.
Objectives: This paper describes the experiences of translating Cochrane Reviews in the nursing area into Korean and discusses lessons arising from the experience.
Translation process: We set the high priority topics in the nursing arena which needed to be translated first. In nursing, the priority was given to recently published reviews in gerontology and evidence-based nursing. These translations were complemented by the Smartling system, which makes working together easier for the project manager and the translator.
Lessons learned: It is important that the objective of the translation (literal translation, conceptual translation, or culturally equivalent translation) be explicitly identified before the translators begin their work. While the translated reviews are grammatically correct and follow the wording of the original, it is hard to translate the professional language into plain Korean for lay people. There is a need for an agreement of standardized language in each specialty area. An interdisciplinary standardized language system needs to be used. The translation work is time- and effort-consuming, it is highly recommended that the priority list of reviews is set up with the members’ agreement. It would be helpful to make a system that facilitates review of the translation by peers and lay people. A high percentage of the reviews in nursing concluded that the effects of certain interventions were not clear. It would be a good strategy to prioritise those reviews with a clear conclusion.
* This work was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 2010-0024922).
Objectives: This paper describes the experiences of translating Cochrane Reviews in the nursing area into Korean and discusses lessons arising from the experience.
Translation process: We set the high priority topics in the nursing arena which needed to be translated first. In nursing, the priority was given to recently published reviews in gerontology and evidence-based nursing. These translations were complemented by the Smartling system, which makes working together easier for the project manager and the translator.
Lessons learned: It is important that the objective of the translation (literal translation, conceptual translation, or culturally equivalent translation) be explicitly identified before the translators begin their work. While the translated reviews are grammatically correct and follow the wording of the original, it is hard to translate the professional language into plain Korean for lay people. There is a need for an agreement of standardized language in each specialty area. An interdisciplinary standardized language system needs to be used. The translation work is time- and effort-consuming, it is highly recommended that the priority list of reviews is set up with the members’ agreement. It would be helpful to make a system that facilitates review of the translation by peers and lay people. A high percentage of the reviews in nursing concluded that the effects of certain interventions were not clear. It would be a good strategy to prioritise those reviews with a clear conclusion.
* This work was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 2010-0024922).