Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Translation task force/About

Translation Task Force

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Our goal is to translate the ~100 most important medical articles into as many languages as possible. Plus we plan to translate summaries of a larger number of less key articles.

An outline of collaborations between the WikiProject Medicine community, journals, and translators

We currently have 33 full articles ready to be translated, and we have an additional 314 simplified articles. If you are interested in translating an article please contact Lucas. If you are interested in improving articles prior to translation please contact Doc James or simply create a Wikipedia account and start editing – general help can be found at WP:MEDHOW, and specifics can be found at: Writing for translations.

The process involves:

1. Bringing the core topics up to WP:GA or WP:FA status by updating the pages on the English Wikipedia using secondary sources per WP:MEDRS. For simplified version you just need to improve the lead of the article in question.
2. A simplified shortened version is than created based on the lead of the main article
3. Translating either the full or simplified version into as many other languages as possible (carried out by TWB as well as independent Wikipedians)
4. Adding the translated articles to the appropriate language of Wikipedia (carried out by Wikipedians in those languages → currently recruiting)

Bringing topics up to GA or FA status

All full articles must reach WP:GA or WP:FA status before they are translated. To get the biggest benefit out of the efforts of those doing translation we need the starting text to be excellent. For advice on how to edit medical articles see WP:MEDHOW. And for specific advice that helps with translation see – Writing For Translation.

Creating simplified version

Some smaller languages have little or no content. Often there is also a limited vocabulary for complicated medical terminology and the number of volunteer translators are few. Thus we have created a shortened simplified version of all the articles. These are typically 2-4 paragraphs in length and give just a brief overview of the condition in question.

If you use Firefox, this Simple English dictionary will help you improve the simplified articles by marking any words that are not in the Simple English vocabulary as "misspelled". After you install the extra dictionary, right-click in an edit window and change the spell check dictionary (under "Languages") to "English".

Translating the articles to as many other languages as possible

The translation will take place from the full or simplified English edition of the articles.

• This will be done in Translators without Borders's translation center, powered by ProZ.com
• A translation center profile has been created for Wikipedia with James Heilman as contact person.
• The translation center includes FAQs and user manual

Adding articles back into the appropriate language of Wikipedia

Ideally this will be taken care of by local Wikipedians. In some languages it has been difficult to recruit and thus is being done by none native speakers. Instructions on how to add articles is here (including the user name and password to access the TWB website.)

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