I realize this is a kind of specialized request, but I think a few people who write journal manuscripts read here.
I'm going to try submitting a manuscript to Southwestern Naturalist. The one little problem I have (pequeno problemo, perhaps) is that they want, in addition to the abstract in English, a version of the abstract in Spanish. And while I know a few words of Spanish, I cannot translate the abstract myself - I just don't know enough. Querying the one person in the department I thought might speak the language got an "Oh, I just use the online automated translators." The thing is, the Instructions to Authors specifically warns against doing that, I suppose because you get weird mistranslations, like "depression" (in the ground) being translated as "depression the mood disorder" or some such.
And I'm a little bit leery of "breaking the rules," because the Instructions to Authors have almost this mythic-quest quality to them, like if you don't do everything correctly, you will anger the Publication Wizards, and your article will be rejected unread.
I could go to the Language department here but I know they're awfully busy and some of the folks are off for the summer. I might do that as a last resort. But is there such thing as a translation service, where you could hire a person who is somewhat knowledgeable about science (in the sense that they'd know the right terms to use) who could translate? And what does that run?
The thing that rankles is, if I could any way justify submitting to Canadian Journal of Botany (I cannot; the article is not suited for them), I could do my own darn translation, because THEY want the abstract translation in French. And I can still write and understand French well enough. But my Spanish is mostly confined to the "polite phrases" (por favor, muchas gracias, etc.) and ordering food, and that's not enough to get me through a translation.
I thought of finding someone at church but no one currently active seems to speak Spanish, or at least more than I do.
This probably looks like a bigger hurdle to me than it really is because I'm sort of tired and am still sick.
5 comments:
Do any high schools in your area teach Spanish? Maybe the instructor would like to pick up some extra money translating this for you.
I was going to make a similar recommendation to check the spanish/romance language department to see if someone could suggest a grad student.
I bet anything that if you wrote to someone at the journal, they'd have someone that they could recommend.
That said, I would also call the Spanish department secretary and ask them 1) If there's someone there that does this sort of thing regularly, and if not, 2) If they have a student notice board on which you could post a request. Or maybe ask your summer classes if there are any Spanish speakers that want extra credit.
Yes, there are professional translators out there in a variety of fields.
You might actually ask the journal if they have particular people they would recommend. I'm sure you're not the only non-Spanish-speaking submitter.
Yes, there are professional translators out there in a variety of fields.
You might actually ask the journal if they have particular people they would recommend. I'm sure you're not the only non-Spanish-speaking submitter.
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