Language revision
and terminology work
at
EFSA
Interagency Terminology Workshop – Luxembourg, 09.12.2011
What does EFSA do?
Mission
EFSA is the keystone of EU risk assessment
regarding food and feed safety. In close cooperation with national authorities and in open
consultation with its stakeholders, EFSA provides
independent
scientific
advice
and
clear
communication on existing and emerging risks in
order to allow risk managers to take decisions
based on science.
2
What does EFSA do?
We advise on food/feed safety across the entire food chain
from field to plate and we communicate on the risks
3
EFSA‘s linguistic regime
EFSA’s working languages:
• EN is the decisive language in case of conflicting versions;
• DE, FR and IT are also EFSA’s working languages.
As of 2009, multilingualism (EU 23) for certain key corporate
documents.
• The EFSA website, in 4 languages, is THE primary vehicle of
communications:
4
Why proofreading/revision
Recital 54 of the EFSA founding regulation (EC)
No.178/2002 states that the Authority‘s purpose is
to
“provide objective, reliable and easily
understandable information”
EFSA’s Communications Strategy 2010-2013
identifies, as one of the key strategic priorities, to
“further increase the coherence of risk
communications across the EU and beyond”
5
Why in-house revision ?
EFSA is one of the few EU agencies to have a
dedicated team of in-house, full-time
proofreaders.
Why does EFSA need
proofreading/revision/copy-editing services?
Not just a matter of
6
Why in-house revision ?
• To align translations to EN source text, especially in
case of last-minute changes
• To ensure multilingual outreach of complex
scientific issues in easily understandable language
• To ensure high quality, timely and coherent release of
important communication outputs in all 4 EFSA working
languages at the same time
• To improve style, clarity and readability of translations,
e.g. when targeting to different audiences or to specific
purposes
• To ensure consistent use of terminology throughout
EFSA’s outputs
7
Who we are ?
do? Who?
Bernd ELZER (DE)
Céline KALAITZIS (FR)
What we
What?
Our work focuses mainly on 4 areas:
1. Language check
proofreading and copy-editing of
translations – including discussing
unclear source passages with authors –
and preparation of localised texts for
printing or publication
2. Quality control
feedback to translators and ad hoc
advice on problematic language issues
Alessandra FANTINI (IT)
3. Translation work, occasional, last
minute requests
4. Terminology work: EFSA glossary +
IATE + ad hoc advice to translators on
8
terms or EFSA jargon
What we do, in detail
Revision outputs
Ad hoc, topical content
 Press releases & news articles
 A-Z topics
 Newsletters
Key corporate documents such
as:
 Annual Report
 Work Plan
 Strategic papers
 Corporate brochure
Translation outputs :
 Press releases & news articles of
particular urgency and/or sensitivity
 Short, ad hoc web texts,
e.g. “event stories”
 Executive Director’s correspondence
of particular urgency and/or
sensitivity
 Replies to media enquiries;
summaries of press articles
 Ad hoc requests from all EFSA units
9
What we don’t do
We do not revise
 scientific outputs (e.g.
opinions issued by EFSA
scientific panels) and
their summaries, which
are no longer translated
as of 2010
 English proofreading of
scientific opinions is
managed either within
Science or by external
providers
We do not translate
 Texts above 1,500-2,000
characters, except in
cases of urgency
 Non urgent texts above
1,500 characters
10
Our workflow
Our main “clients”
Communications
Directorate
EDITORIAL unit
Executive Director’s
Secretariat
EDITORIAL
(plans, coordinates, allocates)
DE
proofreader
FR
proofreade
r
IT
proofreader
Publication on EFSA website or on print
Feedback to translators
11
Our revision tools
• MS Office WORD for most documents
• PDF files in Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard
(text edit function and commenting tools) for publications
and newsletters
• We DO NOT use handwritten proof-correction marks
12
Our basic reference texts
• The Publications Office’s Interinstitutional
Style Guide
• EUR LEX
• IATE, the EU multilingual term base
• Specialised glossaries, depending on language
• Specialised web sites, e.g. DG Sanco, national
food agencies, etc.
• EU Style guides such as Fight the Fog, Clear
Writing manual, Writing for Translation (DG
translation page),
REI (rete per l’eccellenza dell’italiano
13
Quality check: feedback
14
Terminology work at EFSA
•
•
•
•
BACKGROUND
In 2006 an internal EFSA Task Force on Proofreading
was set up to ensure, among other, consistency in
terminology in all EFSA documents across all 4 working
languages and improve the quality of translations by
supporting external translators working for EFSA in the
Translation Centre (CdT)
As a matter of fact, the main area of improvement
identified by the task force was terminology
An EFSA glossary (containing about 900 terms and 185
acronyms) was consolidated on the basis of comments
received from Science and integrated into IATE, the EU’s
inter-institutional terminology database
EFSA was the first EU agency enabled to enter and 15
manage terms in IATE
EFSA-specific terminology:
the EFSA glossary
It is an internal list of the most common, recurring and sometimes
problematic EFSA terms (ca. 900) and acronyms (185).
It is a reference document for our linguists, subject to continuous
updates, hence in no way complete
16
The EFSA glossary on the
Intranet
17
EFSA glossary workflow
Identify new terms from Communications outputs
Share terms among proofreaders
1. specialist sites
Consult:
2. native speaking scientists
Add/update validated terms to EFSA internal glossary
Create/update entry in IATE
( or send Excel sheet to CdT for incorporation in IATE)
18
Terminology work at EFSA
TODAY
In cooperation with CdT, Comms-proofreaders create,
modify and manage EFSA entries in
.
19
IATE statistics
• To date, about 2,600 terms in four languages
have been introduced into the database and
about 1,800 have been modified.
20
Proactive terminology
PURPOSE: Provide text-specific terminology to the
translators (CdT’s Demand Management Service) using an
early warning system: specific instructions are added to
the translation request sent via the CdT Client Portal
Example:
•
Heads up for FR and IT translators: please note that the term ‘applications’
as used at EFSA refers solely to applications for ‘evaluation’ and should not
be translated as applications for ‘authorisation’. Please be careful to only
use the word ‘authorisation’ in your translations when the text explicitly
refers to market authorisation in the broader EU context.
21
The
: a source
of scientific definitions for IATE ?
An example of the Journal’s glossary (EN only)
22
Source: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/publications/efsajournal.htm
Future EFSA projects
EFSA’s Scientific Committee’s
Guidance on the Harmonisation of Risk Assessment
Terminology
(EN only)
Lead by an EFSA cross-panel working group of the Scientific Committee
with the overall aim to improve consistency and transparency and to
reduce ambiguity in communicating Risk Assessment (RA) within an
opinion (consistent use of terms) ; between different opinions of the
same Panel and across EFSA Panels
It will also contribute to the collaborative international work to improve
harmonisation of RA terminology
Each RA output should include a glossary of RA terminology
definitions, which should be compiled as dynamic central glossary
within EFSA.
23
Future EFSA COMMs projects
EFSA’s Communications Directorate
Lexicon project
Initiated by EFSA’s Communications Directorate in collaboration with
the Advisory Forum’s Communications Working Group (AFCWG), this
joint initiative with communication representatives from each of the
National Competent Authorities in the Member States aims to:
• foster understanding of risk assessment work through the
simplification of complex scientific terms while remaining true to
their meaning
• explaining references and measures to add greater meaning to the
work of risk assessors
• enhance consistent and coherent communications throughout the
EU through the use of harmonised terminology and layman
explanations to reduce potential confusion and mixed messages.
24
Our pipe dream list
 Create a terminology network with partner
agencies (ECHA, ECDC, EEA,EMA) to share knowledge
 Obtain access to CdT’s resource such as:
 QUEST
 IATE macro, updated version
 Xerox Term Suite or other Term Extraction
Software
 Translation memories concerning EFSA material
 MT@EC (EU machine translation project)
 IATE:
 Improve effectiveness of search engine; spring cleaning of
double entries
 Finalize EFSA Terminology Watch Project
 Increase CdT’s terminology manpower dedicated to the EU
agencies
25
Networking: the EFSA Extranet ?
Sciencenet
•
•
is the EFSA’s Extranet platform for the exchange of
information
Access is available from the EFSA homepage to certain secure pages on
the EFSA Extranet where you can share information. A username and
password , obtainable from the EFSA Service Desk, is required to log in.
Sciencenet facilitates the exchange of information between EFSA staff and
its networks and partners.
• Sciencenet
26
Let’s keep in touch!
e-mail us:
Comms-proofreaders@efsa.europa.eu
or
1.
find us on the EFSA website
http://www.efsa.europa.eu
2.
3.
27