In general, academic translations are the most complicated of all. With dense texts, highly technical terms and complicated language, translating a research article for publication into English from Spanish, or viceversa, requires a lot of skill. For this reason, we have prepared a list of features you should look for in an academic translator in Colombia before you hire them to translate your article.

1. Qualifications. Your academic translator needs to have studied at university, and preferably at postgraduate level. They need to have some experience researching and writing a thesis so that they can achieve a good translation of your research results. More study = better academic translator. 
2. Publications. Although it isn’t compulsory, if your academic translator has written their own articles or book chapters, it’s a really good sign. This means that they are aware of the structure of these texts, the language required and the importance of accuracy in these translations.
3. Communication. Due to the complexity of an academic article, it is essential that there is good communication between the translator and the author. This will allow the translator to clarify any doubts and ask questions about the text.
4. Academic English style. Writing in academic English is vastly different from everyday English. There are very specific words that are used and the language needs to be direct, well ordered and written in a clear style. A literal translation of a Spanish article would be rejected by a Journal due to problems understanding the text.
5. Logic. It might sound strange, but an academic translation needs to have a logical structure. This includes the ordering of sentences within a paragraph and organizing paragraphs within a section. This achieves that the results and discussion presented in an article have a logical order and are presented in the clearest way possible.
6. Perseverance. An academic translation can take time. Not only doing it, which requires meticulous work, but a Journal often sends corrections and suggestions, which the author usually makes first in Spanish. After this, we need to translate the corrections, incorporate them seamlessly into the article and send them back. It is also common that there can be corrections of the corrections. This is why need an academic translator with determination, patience and who offers a one-year guarantee for making corrections requested by the Journal.
7. Vocabulary. A central element of an academic translation is getting the terms right. We work with each author to build a customized glossary. If they don’t know how to translate certain words, then we research theses, articles and book chapters in English to make sure we get the right term.
8. Native speakers. No one translates better than a native speaker with experience in academic translations. It is impossible to replicate their knowledge or language skills.

ONG Traducciones offers academic translations of the highest quality. You can learn more about this service here.