General

A study reported in 1978 comparing foreign-language scientific and technical articles that received ad hoc or selective translations to those that did not receive such translations (articles in journals receiving regular cover-to-cover translations were excluded from the study), involving 2 groups of 266 articles each selected from Science Citation Index and Translations Register-Index, showed thatthere was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups on the basis of subject content. For example, 100% (14 articles) of the photography articles, 96% (25 articles) of the metallurgy articles, and 82% (18 articles) of the physics articles received ad hoc or selective translations, compared to 17% (4 articles) in general science, 26% (5 articles) in biology, and 32% (18 articles) in medicine (differences significant at beyond the .001 level; measure of association, eta = .50).                    (Source)

        Ibid…. showed thatthere was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups on the basis of original language of the article. For example, 94% (16 articles) of the Russian, 67% (2 articles) of the Polish, and 58% (84 articles) of the German articles received ad hoc or selective translations, compared to no translations of the Swedish/Norwegian (total of 2 articles) or Hungarian (total of 2 articles) and translations for only 18% (2 articles) of the Italian articles (differences significant at beyond the .001 level; measure of association, eta = .37).                   (Source)

        Ibid…. showed thatthere was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups on the basis of number of references cited by the article, with the articles with more references more likely to receive ad hoc or selective translations. For example, only 28% (12 articles) of the articles with no references received ad hoc or selective translations, compared to 69% (22 articles) of the articles with more than 29 references (differences significant at beyond the .001 level; measure of association, eta = .31).                  (Source)

 

Dr. David Kohl

 "Libraries in the digital age are experiencing the most profound transformation since ancient Mesopotamian scribes first began gathering and organizing cuneiform tablets."

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