The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide organization which deals with the development of standardization for the presentation of services and documents in order to uniform the criteria with which they are produced in all fields. Standardization encourages international exchanges because internationally recognized standards among partners and associates provide precise parameters when exchanging information or documents.

ON THE NET
(italian)
Ente Nazionale di Uniformazione (UNI)
ISBN, la codifica internazionale dei libri

ON THE NET
(english)
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

ON THE NET
(German)
Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (DIN)

The ISO, based in Geneva, is a federation of national standards institutes, which, other than contributing to the definition of international standards, helps to develop any specific national versions.

As far as translations are concerned, Great Britain and the United States relate to 2384 ISO published in 1977, and approved by twenty-four countries. The title of this standard is «Documentation - Presentation of translations» and it essentially deals with two problems:

• in what measure can a translation be considered a substitute to the original document
• in what measure must it be possible to identify the original document

In order to learn practical translation techniques, we think it necessary to start off by explaining the definitions and the official standards that regulate the work of the translator, mostly because, when exploring translations in common everyday use, we are often surprised at what we find: these standards are frequently disregarded, mainly because the person in charge of publishing the translation may, as a matter of fact, not be familiar with them at all.

However it is important to say that the standard that is about to be illustrated will not be the only direction in which this course is going: the indications given are not always restricting and are not always valid for all translations.

The 2384 ISO standard is valid for the complete, partial, or abridged translation of documents but it is not valid for the translation of abstracts i.e. the short summaries that sometimes appear as an introduction to articles and that are written in the most popular languages worldwide, such as English or French.

Clause four of this standard lists the essential and complementary (compulsory and noncompulsory) elements in translations, distinguishing four different kinds of publications:books, periodicals, articles, and patents.

BOOKS

As far as translated books or separately issued publications are concerned, it is essential to specify the following:

• Full name of the author/s of the original text, specifying his/her/their role: whether it is an individual author or a corporate one (firm or company for example), chief editor, scientific editor
• Title of the text which has been translated or the translation of the original title
• Kind of translation which has been made: if complete, partial or abridged (in the latter two cases it is necessary to specify exactly what has been translated and what has been omitted)
• Organization responsible for the translation, name of the translator or translators and of the chief editor, or of the scientific editor, or publisher of the translation
• Publisher, place, and date. For unpublished translations, address of persons responsible for the translation
• International Standard Book Number (ISBN); this number is attributed to every non-periodical publication and contains information on the publishing country, the publisher and the title.
• Details on the exclusive copyrights of the translation

It is on the other hand complementary to specify:

• Language of the translation
• Translation of the title of the series or collection

As far as the information regarding the original document is concerned, it is essential to specify:

• Title in the original language
• Place and date of publication in the original language
• Number of the edition (first, second, etc.)
• Publisher
• Original language
• ISBN.

It is complementary to specify the title of the series or collection and the number of the original document of the series.

The 2384 ISO Standard contemplates an eventuality that rarely occurs: that is, that the translation is not a direct one (from Arabic into the target language for example), but that it goes through a third intermediate language (from Arabic into French and then from French into the target language as was the case for many years for the well known text A Thousand and One Nights. For this reason, in many countries we are still used to calling the main character Shéhérazade as in French and not Shahrazàd as in Arabic).

In the case of an intermediate translation it is essential to specify:

• Title
• Date and place of publication
• Number of the edition
• Intermediate language
• ISBN number.

PERIODICALS

By periodical we mean any publication, which is subject to any kind of recurrence.

The essential elements of information related to the translation of a periodical are:

• Title in the language of the translation
• Type of translation which has been made: if complete, partial or abridged (in the latter two cases it is necessary to specify what has been translated and what has been omitted)
• Organization responsible for the translation: person, company, editor or publisher
• Date of publication and specification of the volume translated, number, part translated, and pagination
• Publisher
• Key title (established by the ISDS, International Serials Data Systems) and the ISSN, International Standard Serial Number, the ISBN equivalent for periodicals

It is complementary to specify:

• Language of the translation
• Place and date of publication of the translation
• Information as to how to obtain the translation (identification number, date, price).

As regards the original version of the document, it is on the other hand essential to specify:

• Title of the periodical in its original language
• Date of publication, specification of the volume, issue and part translated and other bibliographical elements (if different from those in the translation)
• Language of the original document
• After the pagination of the translation the pagination of the original document in brackets
• Key title and ISSN number.

It is complementary to specify the place of publication, but on the other hand it is necessary to do so, if it is considered essential in order to identify the periodical.

CONTRIBUTIONS or ARTICLES

When a book is made up of miscellaneous texts by different authors, each text is called a «contribution», while an «article» is a contribution which appears on a periodical.

When the translation of an article is published, it is essential to point out some important elements:

• Full name of author/s specifying their role: whether it is an individual or corporate author (firm or company for example) chief editor, scientific editor;
• Translation of the title of the article;
• Type of translation: complete, partial or abridged (in the latter two cases it is necessary to specify which parts have been translated and which have been omitted);
• Organization responsible for the translation, full name of the translator/s, of the chief editor, scientific editor or publisher of the translation;
• Information as to how to obtain the translation (identification number, date, price).

It is on the other hand complementary to specify:

• Language of the translation
• Place and date of the translation
• If the translation has not been taken from periodicals, it is necessary to specify the type of document/s it has been taken from
• It is necessary to specify if the translation is a preprint.

It is always essential to specify certain elements relating to the original when the translation of a contribution or an article is published:

• Title of the article in the original language
• Title of the periodical in the original language
• Year of publication, number of the volume, issue, part, pagination and any bibliographic details
• ISSN or ISBN.

It is on the other hand complementary to specify the place and date of the original document, although it is necessary to do so in order to identify the periodical.

PATENTS and SIMILAR DOCUMENTS

When the translation of a patent is published, it is essential to specify certain elements of the translation:

• Type of document;
• Country of publication;
• Identification number;
• Names of the potential applicants or grantees, individuals or corporate;
• Translation of the title.

There are also certain other elements of the original that must be specified:

• Title of the document;
• Language of the original document.

It is complementary to specify:

• Number, date, and country of the applicant;
• Number and date of filing (registration);
• Number and date of publication;
• Date of patent;
• Language of translation;
• Date of publication of the translation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

International Organization for Standardization (ISO),

Documentation - Presentation of translations, Genève, © 1977.

http://www.iso.ch

http://www.unicei.it