Where to seek translations of research articles
up vote
14
down vote
favorite
I am collecting a large number of research articles from the historical record on a particular topic (comparative prime number theory). A good handful of them—about 10-15 or so spanning the 20th century—are written in German.
How does one go about (seeking or) soliciting translations into English of full papers, on this scale?
The translations don't have to be utterly perfect, but they should be professional-level translations—meaning we should be confident that mathematicians who read the English translations should get out of it the same mathematical content that someone reading the German original would get.
translation
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
|
show 5 more comments
up vote
14
down vote
favorite
I am collecting a large number of research articles from the historical record on a particular topic (comparative prime number theory). A good handful of them—about 10-15 or so spanning the 20th century—are written in German.
How does one go about (seeking or) soliciting translations into English of full papers, on this scale?
The translations don't have to be utterly perfect, but they should be professional-level translations—meaning we should be confident that mathematicians who read the English translations should get out of it the same mathematical content that someone reading the German original would get.
translation
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
5
You might be able to pay some German colleagues or their grad students to do it. Have you tried this? I can't see any other way you'd be able to have it done (I doubt that most professional translators are familiar with the appropriate mathematical German)
– Harry Gindi
Nov 10 at 19:21
12
Translation of mathematics into English will likely be of poor quality unless the translator knows mathematics.
– Gerald Edgar
Nov 10 at 19:35
1
I am willing to interpret (as opposed to translate) certain texts from German. I can probably recreate my notes from E. Westzynthius's 1931 paper, if that is of interest. Gerhard "It's In My Personal Interest" Paseman, 2018.11.10.
– Gerhard Paseman
Nov 11 at 2:31
1
If you are mostly interested in the mathematical content, you might also try to translate them yourself. Statements and their proofs usually involve only a quite limited vocabulary, and the process is in a way self correcting, since you'll have enough mathematical knowledge to see if you end up with a correct proof. It will be a slow process in the beginning, but I'll guess a few papers in, you'll get quite fluent in reading mathematical German.
– mlk
Nov 11 at 8:15
1
I don't know if there is a number theory mailing list like there is for algebraic topology and category theory, but if there is, you might do well to actually post an advertisement there with how much you're willing to pay per paper/page and see if any of your German colleagues in the field have grad students willing to do it for pay. You could probably get a much better deal doing it this way, especially if you're willing to do final proofreading yourself. At Elsevier's price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-100 per page.
– Harry Gindi
Nov 11 at 10:46
|
show 5 more comments
up vote
14
down vote
favorite
up vote
14
down vote
favorite
I am collecting a large number of research articles from the historical record on a particular topic (comparative prime number theory). A good handful of them—about 10-15 or so spanning the 20th century—are written in German.
How does one go about (seeking or) soliciting translations into English of full papers, on this scale?
The translations don't have to be utterly perfect, but they should be professional-level translations—meaning we should be confident that mathematicians who read the English translations should get out of it the same mathematical content that someone reading the German original would get.
translation
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
I am collecting a large number of research articles from the historical record on a particular topic (comparative prime number theory). A good handful of them—about 10-15 or so spanning the 20th century—are written in German.
How does one go about (seeking or) soliciting translations into English of full papers, on this scale?
The translations don't have to be utterly perfect, but they should be professional-level translations—meaning we should be confident that mathematicians who read the English translations should get out of it the same mathematical content that someone reading the German original would get.
translation
translation
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
asked Nov 10 at 19:10
Greg Martin
7,88913357
7,88913357
5
You might be able to pay some German colleagues or their grad students to do it. Have you tried this? I can't see any other way you'd be able to have it done (I doubt that most professional translators are familiar with the appropriate mathematical German)
– Harry Gindi
Nov 10 at 19:21
12
Translation of mathematics into English will likely be of poor quality unless the translator knows mathematics.
– Gerald Edgar
Nov 10 at 19:35
1
I am willing to interpret (as opposed to translate) certain texts from German. I can probably recreate my notes from E. Westzynthius's 1931 paper, if that is of interest. Gerhard "It's In My Personal Interest" Paseman, 2018.11.10.
– Gerhard Paseman
Nov 11 at 2:31
1
If you are mostly interested in the mathematical content, you might also try to translate them yourself. Statements and their proofs usually involve only a quite limited vocabulary, and the process is in a way self correcting, since you'll have enough mathematical knowledge to see if you end up with a correct proof. It will be a slow process in the beginning, but I'll guess a few papers in, you'll get quite fluent in reading mathematical German.
– mlk
Nov 11 at 8:15
1
I don't know if there is a number theory mailing list like there is for algebraic topology and category theory, but if there is, you might do well to actually post an advertisement there with how much you're willing to pay per paper/page and see if any of your German colleagues in the field have grad students willing to do it for pay. You could probably get a much better deal doing it this way, especially if you're willing to do final proofreading yourself. At Elsevier's price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-100 per page.
– Harry Gindi
Nov 11 at 10:46
|
show 5 more comments
5
You might be able to pay some German colleagues or their grad students to do it. Have you tried this? I can't see any other way you'd be able to have it done (I doubt that most professional translators are familiar with the appropriate mathematical German)
– Harry Gindi
Nov 10 at 19:21
12
Translation of mathematics into English will likely be of poor quality unless the translator knows mathematics.
– Gerald Edgar
Nov 10 at 19:35
1
I am willing to interpret (as opposed to translate) certain texts from German. I can probably recreate my notes from E. Westzynthius's 1931 paper, if that is of interest. Gerhard "It's In My Personal Interest" Paseman, 2018.11.10.
– Gerhard Paseman
Nov 11 at 2:31
1
If you are mostly interested in the mathematical content, you might also try to translate them yourself. Statements and their proofs usually involve only a quite limited vocabulary, and the process is in a way self correcting, since you'll have enough mathematical knowledge to see if you end up with a correct proof. It will be a slow process in the beginning, but I'll guess a few papers in, you'll get quite fluent in reading mathematical German.
– mlk
Nov 11 at 8:15
1
I don't know if there is a number theory mailing list like there is for algebraic topology and category theory, but if there is, you might do well to actually post an advertisement there with how much you're willing to pay per paper/page and see if any of your German colleagues in the field have grad students willing to do it for pay. You could probably get a much better deal doing it this way, especially if you're willing to do final proofreading yourself. At Elsevier's price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-100 per page.
– Harry Gindi
Nov 11 at 10:46
5
5
You might be able to pay some German colleagues or their grad students to do it. Have you tried this? I can't see any other way you'd be able to have it done (I doubt that most professional translators are familiar with the appropriate mathematical German)
– Harry Gindi
Nov 10 at 19:21
You might be able to pay some German colleagues or their grad students to do it. Have you tried this? I can't see any other way you'd be able to have it done (I doubt that most professional translators are familiar with the appropriate mathematical German)
– Harry Gindi
Nov 10 at 19:21
12
12
Translation of mathematics into English will likely be of poor quality unless the translator knows mathematics.
– Gerald Edgar
Nov 10 at 19:35
Translation of mathematics into English will likely be of poor quality unless the translator knows mathematics.
– Gerald Edgar
Nov 10 at 19:35
1
1
I am willing to interpret (as opposed to translate) certain texts from German. I can probably recreate my notes from E. Westzynthius's 1931 paper, if that is of interest. Gerhard "It's In My Personal Interest" Paseman, 2018.11.10.
– Gerhard Paseman
Nov 11 at 2:31
I am willing to interpret (as opposed to translate) certain texts from German. I can probably recreate my notes from E. Westzynthius's 1931 paper, if that is of interest. Gerhard "It's In My Personal Interest" Paseman, 2018.11.10.
– Gerhard Paseman
Nov 11 at 2:31
1
1
If you are mostly interested in the mathematical content, you might also try to translate them yourself. Statements and their proofs usually involve only a quite limited vocabulary, and the process is in a way self correcting, since you'll have enough mathematical knowledge to see if you end up with a correct proof. It will be a slow process in the beginning, but I'll guess a few papers in, you'll get quite fluent in reading mathematical German.
– mlk
Nov 11 at 8:15
If you are mostly interested in the mathematical content, you might also try to translate them yourself. Statements and their proofs usually involve only a quite limited vocabulary, and the process is in a way self correcting, since you'll have enough mathematical knowledge to see if you end up with a correct proof. It will be a slow process in the beginning, but I'll guess a few papers in, you'll get quite fluent in reading mathematical German.
– mlk
Nov 11 at 8:15
1
1
I don't know if there is a number theory mailing list like there is for algebraic topology and category theory, but if there is, you might do well to actually post an advertisement there with how much you're willing to pay per paper/page and see if any of your German colleagues in the field have grad students willing to do it for pay. You could probably get a much better deal doing it this way, especially if you're willing to do final proofreading yourself. At Elsevier's price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-100 per page.
– Harry Gindi
Nov 11 at 10:46
I don't know if there is a number theory mailing list like there is for algebraic topology and category theory, but if there is, you might do well to actually post an advertisement there with how much you're willing to pay per paper/page and see if any of your German colleagues in the field have grad students willing to do it for pay. You could probably get a much better deal doing it this way, especially if you're willing to do final proofreading yourself. At Elsevier's price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-100 per page.
– Harry Gindi
Nov 11 at 10:46
|
show 5 more comments
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
up vote
18
down vote
Elsevier offers a translation service at a rate of € 0.22 per word for a German to English translation. They promise that the translation will be at the level suitable for publication in one of their professional journals, without the obligation to actually submit to one of their journals. You might try them out.
I know, this is a for-profit company, but I don't see how you can do this with volunteers, without payment.
A different issue is how you will handle the math. You could simply OCR the German publication and provide the translator with the German text without the math, but in particular for inline symbols this may be confusing. I have in the past used InftyReader to convert a scanned document into LaTeX, including the equations. Some post-processing is needed, but it might be an efficient solution.
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
9
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
1
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
5
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
add a comment |
up vote
7
down vote
Like you, I struggle to decipher articles in German. The older influential articles (before 1980) were all translated in Russian by top Russian mathematicians . If you can read Russian I highly recommend these translations. Often they are better than the original since the translations occurred several years after the original publication and they often include as appendices surveys of what happened since the publication. Many typos and mathematical errors in the original were corrected, and sometime in the footnotes you can find sketches of different arguments.
Another approach I am using relies on Google Translate. It has improved considerably and I have used it successfully to read German articles, one paragraph at a time. The translation is not perfect but close enough so you can figure out yourself the mathematical arguments.
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
18
down vote
Elsevier offers a translation service at a rate of € 0.22 per word for a German to English translation. They promise that the translation will be at the level suitable for publication in one of their professional journals, without the obligation to actually submit to one of their journals. You might try them out.
I know, this is a for-profit company, but I don't see how you can do this with volunteers, without payment.
A different issue is how you will handle the math. You could simply OCR the German publication and provide the translator with the German text without the math, but in particular for inline symbols this may be confusing. I have in the past used InftyReader to convert a scanned document into LaTeX, including the equations. Some post-processing is needed, but it might be an efficient solution.
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
9
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
1
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
5
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
add a comment |
up vote
18
down vote
Elsevier offers a translation service at a rate of € 0.22 per word for a German to English translation. They promise that the translation will be at the level suitable for publication in one of their professional journals, without the obligation to actually submit to one of their journals. You might try them out.
I know, this is a for-profit company, but I don't see how you can do this with volunteers, without payment.
A different issue is how you will handle the math. You could simply OCR the German publication and provide the translator with the German text without the math, but in particular for inline symbols this may be confusing. I have in the past used InftyReader to convert a scanned document into LaTeX, including the equations. Some post-processing is needed, but it might be an efficient solution.
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
9
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
1
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
5
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
add a comment |
up vote
18
down vote
up vote
18
down vote
Elsevier offers a translation service at a rate of € 0.22 per word for a German to English translation. They promise that the translation will be at the level suitable for publication in one of their professional journals, without the obligation to actually submit to one of their journals. You might try them out.
I know, this is a for-profit company, but I don't see how you can do this with volunteers, without payment.
A different issue is how you will handle the math. You could simply OCR the German publication and provide the translator with the German text without the math, but in particular for inline symbols this may be confusing. I have in the past used InftyReader to convert a scanned document into LaTeX, including the equations. Some post-processing is needed, but it might be an efficient solution.
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
Elsevier offers a translation service at a rate of € 0.22 per word for a German to English translation. They promise that the translation will be at the level suitable for publication in one of their professional journals, without the obligation to actually submit to one of their journals. You might try them out.
I know, this is a for-profit company, but I don't see how you can do this with volunteers, without payment.
A different issue is how you will handle the math. You could simply OCR the German publication and provide the translator with the German text without the math, but in particular for inline symbols this may be confusing. I have in the past used InftyReader to convert a scanned document into LaTeX, including the equations. Some post-processing is needed, but it might be an efficient solution.
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
edited Nov 11 at 7:43
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
answered Nov 10 at 19:42
Carlo Beenakker
71.5k9160267
71.5k9160267
9
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
1
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
5
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
add a comment |
9
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
1
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
5
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
9
9
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
Wait... the price per word is the same from German to English and from English to German? What about German compound words?
– Willie Wong
Nov 10 at 19:57
1
1
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
I understand that the standard for translation price is wordcount in source language---you are not paid for writing too long sentences in target language! I guess german compound words is counted as one word, after all, they are one word.
– kjetil b halvorsen
Nov 10 at 22:24
5
5
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
:%s/ //g (sorry)
– Felipe Voloch
Nov 10 at 23:08
add a comment |
up vote
7
down vote
Like you, I struggle to decipher articles in German. The older influential articles (before 1980) were all translated in Russian by top Russian mathematicians . If you can read Russian I highly recommend these translations. Often they are better than the original since the translations occurred several years after the original publication and they often include as appendices surveys of what happened since the publication. Many typos and mathematical errors in the original were corrected, and sometime in the footnotes you can find sketches of different arguments.
Another approach I am using relies on Google Translate. It has improved considerably and I have used it successfully to read German articles, one paragraph at a time. The translation is not perfect but close enough so you can figure out yourself the mathematical arguments.
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
add a comment |
up vote
7
down vote
Like you, I struggle to decipher articles in German. The older influential articles (before 1980) were all translated in Russian by top Russian mathematicians . If you can read Russian I highly recommend these translations. Often they are better than the original since the translations occurred several years after the original publication and they often include as appendices surveys of what happened since the publication. Many typos and mathematical errors in the original were corrected, and sometime in the footnotes you can find sketches of different arguments.
Another approach I am using relies on Google Translate. It has improved considerably and I have used it successfully to read German articles, one paragraph at a time. The translation is not perfect but close enough so you can figure out yourself the mathematical arguments.
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
add a comment |
up vote
7
down vote
up vote
7
down vote
Like you, I struggle to decipher articles in German. The older influential articles (before 1980) were all translated in Russian by top Russian mathematicians . If you can read Russian I highly recommend these translations. Often they are better than the original since the translations occurred several years after the original publication and they often include as appendices surveys of what happened since the publication. Many typos and mathematical errors in the original were corrected, and sometime in the footnotes you can find sketches of different arguments.
Another approach I am using relies on Google Translate. It has improved considerably and I have used it successfully to read German articles, one paragraph at a time. The translation is not perfect but close enough so you can figure out yourself the mathematical arguments.
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
Like you, I struggle to decipher articles in German. The older influential articles (before 1980) were all translated in Russian by top Russian mathematicians . If you can read Russian I highly recommend these translations. Often they are better than the original since the translations occurred several years after the original publication and they often include as appendices surveys of what happened since the publication. Many typos and mathematical errors in the original were corrected, and sometime in the footnotes you can find sketches of different arguments.
Another approach I am using relies on Google Translate. It has improved considerably and I have used it successfully to read German articles, one paragraph at a time. The translation is not perfect but close enough so you can figure out yourself the mathematical arguments.
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
edited Nov 11 at 17:48
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
answered Nov 11 at 10:07
Liviu Nicolaescu
25k256108
25k256108
add a comment |
add a comment |
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5
You might be able to pay some German colleagues or their grad students to do it. Have you tried this? I can't see any other way you'd be able to have it done (I doubt that most professional translators are familiar with the appropriate mathematical German)
– Harry Gindi
Nov 10 at 19:21
12
Translation of mathematics into English will likely be of poor quality unless the translator knows mathematics.
– Gerald Edgar
Nov 10 at 19:35
1
I am willing to interpret (as opposed to translate) certain texts from German. I can probably recreate my notes from E. Westzynthius's 1931 paper, if that is of interest. Gerhard "It's In My Personal Interest" Paseman, 2018.11.10.
– Gerhard Paseman
Nov 11 at 2:31
1
If you are mostly interested in the mathematical content, you might also try to translate them yourself. Statements and their proofs usually involve only a quite limited vocabulary, and the process is in a way self correcting, since you'll have enough mathematical knowledge to see if you end up with a correct proof. It will be a slow process in the beginning, but I'll guess a few papers in, you'll get quite fluent in reading mathematical German.
– mlk
Nov 11 at 8:15
1
I don't know if there is a number theory mailing list like there is for algebraic topology and category theory, but if there is, you might do well to actually post an advertisement there with how much you're willing to pay per paper/page and see if any of your German colleagues in the field have grad students willing to do it for pay. You could probably get a much better deal doing it this way, especially if you're willing to do final proofreading yourself. At Elsevier's price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-100 per page.
– Harry Gindi
Nov 11 at 10:46