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Finding and Using Non-English and Non-"Western" Scholarly Materials (Practical Bibliodiversity)

A guide for finding scholarly and non-scholarly resources in languages other than English or from countries that are not typically represented in traditional publishing

Intro

Valuable scholarly works are published in dozens of languages and researchers often come across resources that are published in languages they do not understand. It would not be practical to try to gain a mastery of a language just to read an article or book, so researchers can deploy a range of different tools to understand the resource. 

Searching for Translations

The first step a research can take when faced with a language barrier is to see if a translation exist of the resource. Unfortunately, researchers need to be prepared for disappointment -  creating a translation of a text is often an expensive process that publishers typically do not take on for scholarly books and articles unless they are very popular or ground-breaking. On the chance that the resource is translated, researchers can find the translation by: 

  1. Searching the title: While this may seem like a "no-brainer" step, it is often the fastest and most overlooked way to find translations of a resource. Typing in the tile and the language you want the resource to be in will hopefully populate with a helpful result. However, there is a chance this will not work as titles of translated works can be completely unrelated to the title of the original. 
  2. Checking the Publisher's Website: Most publishers of books and journals maintain websites that will keep you updated on the resource and if it has a translation available. 
  3. Checking a translation database: There are databases available that keep records of 
    1.  Translation Database: For finding fiction and poetry published in the U.S. in English translation
    2. Index Translationum : A UN Database that tracks translations of works

Search the Author

Most authors of scholarly resources have published a lot of content that is all related to the same topic. This means that even if the resource you found isn't in English, the author may have other work that is published in English that covers similar material. Even better, if a translation of the resource does exist it will still be associated with the author so this would be a great way to find those! To find out if a author has published in English, follow the steps below: 

  1.  Go to Google Scholar and search for the title of the resource you using. 
  2. Click on the author's hyperlinked name
  3. This will bring up the author's profile which will include all their other works. 
  4. Scan the titles and see if they have published something similar in English. 

 

This won't work for every resource as some researchers are not indexed on Google Scholar or just haven't published anything in English. 

Use a Translation software

We have all heard language teachers bemoan the use of Google Translate or other translation software, so much so that students think that using it at all is against academic honesty policies. While it is true that using a translation software to write your language homework for you is academic dishonesty, using the same software to read scholarly works for non-language classes is perfectly acceptable and is the standard for most researchers and academics working with materials outside their language skills. 

Keep in mind that these translation software options are far from perfect. Sentence structure and word choices will be strange and often non-sensical, and you will not get a useable translation for every sentence. However, you will likely be able to muddle through and gain a good understanding of the overall thesis and arguments of the resource. 

If you do end up using a software-translated in your own work, be sure to cite it properly by noting that the resource was translated using software and which software was used. Avoid using direct quotes from the resource as your translated understanding of those quotes could be off. 

 

Some databases have a machine translating feature included.

  • ProQuest Databases sometimes has a translation feature. The resource's full text must be in html format - not PDF. ProQuest does not have an icon that specifically marks that the full text is in html format. 
  • EBSCO databases sometimes have this feature, and you can learn more about it on their "Translating an Article" help page. For this EBSCO feature to work, the full text of the article must be in html. Results that are in html full text have an icon indicating this.