COCHRANE’S TRANSLATION STRATEGYSustainable large-scale translation of Cochrane Reviews for local language users: finding an approach to support productivity and quality control

EASE 2014, Split

Juliane Ried & Harriet MacLehose Translations Co-ordinator & Senior Editor

Cochrane

Overview

1- Introduction

2- Challenges

3- Key approaches

1- INTRODUCTION

About The Cochrane Collaboration

"It is surely a great criticism of our profession that we have not organised a critical summary, by specialty or subspecialty, adapted periodically, of all relevant randomised controlled trials.” Archie Cochrane, 1979

Photo: Cardiff University Library, Cochrane Archive, University Hospital Llandough

Introduction

Introduction

199377 people

from 9 countries

2014>30,000 people

from >120 countries

Cochrane Review Groups, Methods Groups, Consumers, Fields, Centres and Branches, Steering Group, Central Executive Team

Introduction

GOAL 1: Producing evidence

To produce high-quality, relevant, up-to-date systematic reviews and other synthesised research evidence to inform health decision making.

GOAL 2: Making our evidence accessible

To make Cochrane evidence accessible and useful to everybody, everywhere in the world.

GOAL 3: Advocating for evidence

To make Cochrane the ‘home of evidence’ to inform health decision making, build greater recognition of our work, and become the leading advocate for evidence-informed health care.

GOAL 4: Building an effective & sustainable organisation

To be a diverse, inclusive and transparent international organisation that effectively harnesses the enthusiasm and skills of our contributors, is guided by our principles, governed accountably, managed efficiently and makes optimal use of its resources.

InternationalNon-for-profitIndependent

Introduction

Cochrane Systematic Reviews

A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a given research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit methods aimed at minimizing bias, in order to produce more reliable findings that can be used to inform decision-making.

Healthcare practitioners, policy-makers, patients and carers, researchers

Introduction

Blue = Cochrane ReviewsRed = Updated Cochrane ReviewsOrange = Cochrane Protocols (prepared before starting a Cochrane Review)

Introduction

Supported by 53 Cochrane Review Groups/ editorial teams

Introduction

Structured articles

Standards for methods and reporting

Introduction

Structured articles

Standards for methods and reporting

Introduction

Why translations?

Introduction

Why translations?

Introduction

Why translations?

Introduction

UK USA AUS CA

Other

Cochrane contributors by country

Why translations?

Introduction

Why translations?

Introduction

Mar-1

2

Apr-12

May-1

2

Jun-12

Jul-12

Aug-12

Sep-12

Oct-1

2

Nov-12

Dec-12

Jan-13

Feb-13

Mar-1

3

Apr-13

May-1

3

Jun-13

Jul-13

Aug-13

Sep-13

Oct-1

3

Nov-13

Dec-13

Jan-14

Feb-14

Mar-1

40

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

Monthly access to translations on our consumer portal, Cochrane Summaries

French Spanish

Translation to date

Introduction

• Local and regional initiatives• Funded vs. volunteer projects• Different work flows• Professional translators vs. content experts

Cochrane’s Strategy to 2020

Introduction

2- CHALLENGES

¿Hablas Cochrane?

Challenges

French

Japanese

Spanish

IndonesianChinese (Trad.)

Malay

Portuguese

Russian

Tamil

Thai

Urdu

ArabicChinese (Simpl.)

Croatian

German? ?

Korean

Farsi

Reviews are long & specialised,and there are many

• Limit to abstract & plain language summaries• Prioritise topics• Involve content experts

Challenges

Our content changes all the time

Challenges

Blue = ReviewsRed = UpdatesOrange = Protocols

What about quality?• Involve content experts• Establish a translation process with at least two

independent steps (e.g. translation & post-editing)• Check translations against the original• Have a named person or team sign off on each translation• Develop glossaries for consistency of terms and phrases

(methods & health)• Train translators and editors, and evaluate

Challenges

Bringing order into the chaos & increasing capacity

Central support and infrastructure for translation management and publication (in line with our editorial work flows)

Challenges

Making our translations accessible

Multi-language web presence & search

Challenges

Sustainability

Challenges

Annual cost of Spanish and French projects:

up to 500,000 Euros

3- MAIN APPROACHES

How do we translate?

Statistical machine translation • Software programmed and trained to translate Cochrane

content• Making use of existing translations and other relevant

corpora• Our specialised and repetitive content plays to our favour• Facilitates translation of updated Reviews

Main approaches

Main approaches

How do we translate?

Statistical machine translation • Software programmed and trained to translate Cochrane

content• Making use of existing translations and other relevant

corpora• Our specialised and repetitive content plays to our favour• Facilitates translation of updated Reviews

But: We still need humans!

Main approaches

How do we translate?

Main approaches

Crowdsourcing

How do we translate?

Crowdsourcing

– but what’s in it for the translators?• Participation in / contribution to Cochrane• Acknowledgement with published translations• Certificates• University credits• Investment return?

Main approaches

Simplified and standardised content

“Accessible language: We will simplify and standardise the language used across our content to improve readability and reduce ambiguity.”

Why? • Make it easier to read• Make it easier to translate• Help train machine translation software (e.g. more times

same phrase used = increased confidence in machine translation)

Main approaches

Plain English

Structured approach

ASD Simplified Technical English

Plain English Campaign

GET-IT

Translation glossaries

Cochrane Style Guide

Cochrane Plain Language Summary

standards

Cochrane structured sentences for

standard reporting

Main approaches

How will we measure success?

• Guidelines have been developed for Cochrane Reviews of interventions, specifically for Plain Language Summaries, Abstracts, and Authors’ Conclusions

• Reduction in time taken to translate Plain Language Summaries, Abstracts, and Authors’ Conclusions

• Implementation and evaluation

Main approaches

Cochrane’s translation strategy

Sustainable approaches to translation

Support & infrastructure to facilitate high quality translation and

accessible publication

¡Hablo Cochrane!

French

Japanese

Spanish

Indonesian Chinese (Trad.)

Malay

Portuguese

Russian

Tamil

Thai Urdu

Arabic

Chinese (Simpl.)Croatian

GermanKorean

Farsi

Thank you!

Cochrane’s translation strategy, Jan 2014

http://www.cochrane.org/community/development-projects/translation-strategy

PLOS Medicine, Sept 2013