Recommendations on the translation of academic texts in the social sciences and the humanities

Abstract

These recommendations are addressed not only to translators, but to all users of translation, including authors and readers of academic texts, journal editors and publishers, as well as reviewers. They call attention to the translated nature of many works that are often viewed as originals, and through which English as the academic lingua franca is constantly produced and reproduced in a multilingual space. Rather than approaching translation as a hindrance, they seek to highlight its transformative potential and to call for more constructive approaches to the translation of academic texts. Academic translation, these recommendations maintain, relates to the particularities of the language of the social sciences and the humanities, as distinct from that of scientific and technical texts. Relying on a theory of translation as a procedure that involves specialized techniques for the rewriting of texts, they address the relationship between writing and translating, the collaboration between academic authors and translators, and relevant issues relating to the politics of translation in a highly unequal academic field.