Spotlight on Cochrane Brazil’s Portuguese translation project
Experience shared
Thorough revision of translations done by volunteers – is it worth the effort?
Based on: Logullo P, Albuquerque J, Porfirio G, Martimbianco A, Riera R, Atallah A, Torloni M. The Importance of
Critical Revision of Translated Abstracts. In: Filtering the information overload for better decisions. Abstracts of the
23rd Cochrane Colloquium; 2015, 3-7 October; Vienna, Austria. John Wiley & Sons; 2015.
What we did
We assessed the mistakes made by volunteers who translate Cochrane abstracts and plain
language summaries into Portuguese. We analysed 12 translations. A Portuguese language expert
experienced in proofreading Portuguese texts focused on linguistic and readability aspects, and a
Physician checked the accuracy of the medical content. We classified detected errors by type and
frequency.
Lessons learned
 All 12 translations contained both grammatical and spelling mistakes.
 Many corrections were stylistic (mean 15.75 per translation) to improve text readability.
 Although volunteers are very motivated and qualified health professionals, translations can


be considerably improved by professional language revision.
Cochrane abstracts are read by thousands of consumers and professionals worldwide. A
thorough revision process is therefore vital and worthwhile to ensure high-quality
translations.
We have created a short guide about common mistakes for our volunteers, and we are
planning to introduce training to try and reduce the number of mistakes.
Want to learn more?
Please contact Patricia
Logullo, Linguistic editor
at Cochrane Brazil
(patricia@palavraimpress
a.com.br)
Summary of mistakes made by
translation volunteers in 12 abstracts
Trusted evidence.
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