Back Translation
The back translation process provides additional assurance of quality and accuracy for high value content such as clinical trials, medical, and marketing.
Back Translation Service
Back translation describes the process of taking a translated version of a file or document and having an independent translator, with no prior knowledge of the original content, translate it back into the original source language. Back translations involve a three step process:
- Translating a completed translation back into the original source language
- Comparing that translation with the original source content
- Reconciling any meaningful differences between the source content and the back translation, in the original translation
Back translations will never achieve a 100% match. However, the process helps to identify any errors, ambiguities or confusion that sometimes arise due to the nature of language. If major differences are found, then a reconciliation is conducted to resolve those differences and update the original translation.
Who Needs Back Translation Service
For some industries, back translations may be a legal or regulatory requirement. In clinical trials, for example, most government regulatory agencies and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) require that certificates of accuracy and back-translations are submitted with all translated materials. This ensures that all translations of high risk medical, technical or scientific content are both linguistically and culturally accurate and of the highest quality.
Other industries where back translation services are required include:
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Back translation services are also necessary to verify advertising or promotional claims, especially for sensitive materials where inaccuracies could be deadly, such as the advertising of pharmaceutical products, for example.
Companies who are moving into new markets or introducing a new marketing message into an existing market, may also want to use back translation services to ensure their tag line or logo is culturally appropriate. For example, if a business were to translate their slogan from English to Japanese, a translator would then translate it back to English to ensure the slogan remained the same in both languages. Back translations allow businesses to compare a translation with its original text to ensure quality and accuracy and help to assess the similarity between the source text and its translation. A back translation service like this would be most helpful when translating things like taglines, titles, product names, brand messages including puns and clever wordplay, and slogans. In other words, this involves content that a business wants to remain consistent across every language so that it keeps its meaning in different cultural contexts. This service also ensures that puns, taglines, slogans, and more are not interpreted as offensive by different cultures.
Because back translations function as a strong quality assurance method to translation, they are most often used in life sciences, medical, legal, financial, and manufacturing industries. Even though highly regulated industries like these rely on back translations every day, back translation services can help all kinds of businesses when they are dealing with industry-specific terminology or extremely sensitive legal or financial documents.
Importance of Proper Back Translation
Because of the importance of back translations and reconciliation, back translation services cannot be done by just any translator or even language service provider (LSP). Back translations and reconciliation involve a specific workflow. The result of using a language service provider that does not perform all the steps in the forward translation, back translation and reconciliation process, is a reduction in the quality of the translation.
You will want to work with an experienced LSP where the entire team – the original translator and the second translator are available to handle any reconciliation needs that may arise. Unfortunately, if you work with a second translator and the original translator was not part of the LSP’s team, it can introduce errors in the process of reconciliation. You also want to be sure that the language service provider will provide a certificate of accuracy.
BURG Translations has been providing translations for highly regulated industries for over 85 years, and Life Sciences for over 30. We help our clients meet their regulatory and ethics requirements with back translations and reconciliation every day.
Ready to learn more about how back translations can help your business grow and compete in global markets? Contact BURG Translations today!
Back Translation Process
| WORKFLOW | |
| Steps | 16 – 17 |
| Team size | ≥6 |
| ISO 9001:2015 process | Yes |
| ISO 17100:2015 process | Yes |
| Average quote response time | 21 minutes |
| Project status update | 24/7 |
| Post-delivery Project Support | Indefinite |
| BURG endorsed translators | 100% |
| Document Analysis tools | YES |
| Advanced text extraction and file conversion tools | YES |
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