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When Reviews are updated your translations become out of date. We mark translations as out of date on cochrane.org automatically, but they remain accessible. You can check  whether whether any of your translations need to be updated by running a search in Archie. Aim to check for outdated translations every 1-2 months, and update them, where possible. The translation memory will make it quicker , if the changes are minor. Please watch follow this YouTube video written guide for step-by-step instructions to find outdated translations, or follow this written guide.

Train your team

When a new translator joins your project, be clear about what you expect from them and make sure they have all the information they need to start translating. You could create an induction pack, including for example the following information:

  • Introduction about how you work, your preferred method of being contacted, what you expect from your translators, what they can expect etc.
  • Point new joiners to the other resources on Confluence (https://documentation.cochrane.org/display/TH) which has general information about translation at Cochrane and guides for translators. You can adapt material from the toolkit to make it more relevant to your project.
  • Introduction to Memsource
  • Your style guide, glossary and any other language-specific guidelines.

Manage your team

If you work with many volunteers, this could quickly become a challenge to manage. Here are some tips that may help.:

  • Create a spreadsheet of your translators and editors, including contact details, their background, level of translation experience, language skills, preferred topics for translation and their availability.
  • Keep track of what work you assign to your translators and editors, and when, and follow up with them, if they don’t complete it after a while.
  • Keeping the above information up to date will also be useful if you want to hand out certificates or references.
  • Communicate with your volunteers regularly to ensure they feel supported and appreciated and be responsive if they contact you with a query.
  • Show your appreciation for their work by thanking them when they submit a translation. You could also email them a link to the finished text when their translation is online.
  • Provide feedback on their translations so that they know what they need to improve. This can be a lot of work , but may enhance the quality of future translations, meaning less editing is required from you.
  • A simple way of keeping in touch with all your translators is by sending a periodic email update to everyone, for example, every 2 months. You could use this to provide feedback about common mistakes made in translations, to celebrate achievements, and provide general updates. This may remind and encourage some volunteers to work on another translation.
  • You could also use social media, for example, a closed Facebook group, as a way to communicate with your translators, and help them feel part of a team.
  • Distribute the work – Could any of your experienced translators take on a mentor role for new translators, helping them with training for example, or become an editor? Or could several translators team up to organise translation and editing among themselves? Or could you involve some volunteers in dissemination tasks, e.g. posting on social media?
  • You could think about organising local or virtual meet-ups to run translation training, live translating, or social events, to help build a community.

 

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