Scientific Translation

What is it?
The translation of scientific research or documents relating to it.
What this means
These texts invariably contain domain-specific terminology, and often involve cutting edge research. So
it’s imperative the translator has the necessary knowledge of the field to fully understand the text. That’s
why scientific translators are typically either experts in the field who have turned to translation, or
professionally qualified translators who also have qualifications and/or experience in that domain.
Examples
Research papers, journal articles, experiment/trial results.
Professional translations of abstracts
Once a scientific work has been completed, the only thing missing is the abstract – a short and descriptive
summary of the work. In the modern-day, international scientific community, the abstract is often
translated. But be careful: For the special features of the abstract to be suitable in the translation, it must be
handled very carefully. If the abstract fails to convince the reader, he or she will probably not read the full
work.
Your translator needs to know more than just how to transfer text from one language to the other. The
translator must be aware of how the abstract reflects the author’s central theses. The most important terms
should be used as well. This is also an opportunity to consider highly relevant terms for database searches.
Short, descriptive sentences are best, and fill words should be avoided when composing an abstract.
Another important tip is to not write any new statements in the abstract that are not present in the scientific
work itself. However, full sentences from the original work may not be repeated in the abstract either. In
fact, it is important to reform excerpts from the composition and rewrite them in other words.
Challenges of translating abstracts
Anyone interested in professionally translating an abstract not only needs native speaking proficiency of
the target language, but also specific expertise in the subject area of the scientific work. It isn’t enough for
a translator to just understand the specific technical terms and expressions in these works. He or she must
have actively mastered them. More often than not, these are difficult to understand, let alone to translate.
The target language will also have its own expressions and sentence constructions for different subject
areas. The translated abstract can only be understood if these terms and sentences are used correctly.
Without scientific training in the subject area of the abstract, it is impossible for someone to choose the
correct words when translating.
your translation must be completely clear, accurate, and easy to understand. It must also reproduce exactly
what the scientific work states in the original language. Analogous translation has no place in the field of
science.