# Translating and standardizing metadata: a case study for French social sciences surveys

Alina Danciu

► To cite this version:

Alina Danciu. Translating and standardizing metadata: a case study for French social sciences surveys. European Survey Research Association Conference (ESRA), European Survey Research Association, Jul 2019, Zagreb, Croatia. pp.11. hal-03901254

HAL Id: hal-03901254

https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03901254

Submitted on 15 Dec 2022

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# Translating and standardizing metadata: a case study for French social sciences surveys

Alina Danciu

Center for Socio-Political Data (CDSP),
Paris, France

ESRA conference Zagreb, July, 18 2019
☐ Multilingualism as a dimension of **data discoverability**

☐ Translation **challenges**: controlled vocabularies & cultural issues

☐ Improving our practices

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FAIR data and metadata at the Center for Socio-Political Data (CDSP)

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How **FAIR** principles should manifest in reality is **open to interpretation**\*

Consensus on the fact that the ultimate goal of metadata should be to optimize reuse of data
Need for data archives to adapt

Source: Mons B. and Neylon, C. and Velterop, J. and Dumontier, M. and Da Silva Santos, L. and Wilkinson, M. 2017. Cloudy, increasingly FAIR; Revisiting the FAIR Data guiding principles for the European Open Science Cloud. Information Services and Use. 37 (1): pp. 49-56.
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Why translate metadata?

☒ of non French speaking data users at the CDSP

“Metadata translation is often sufficient to support a user’s assessment
whether an object is relevant or not.”

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## What's special about metadata translation?

**Translators of literature** often have a great deal of linguistic and artistic freedom. The challenge of translating fiction usually lies in carrying the ambiguities of the source language over to the target language.

**Translating technical and informative texts** requires **clearer, more univocal interpretation**, although depending on the text type a translator may have some creative licence.
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# What is a good (metadata) translation?

Language is built on interpretations

How to create a neutral translation?

Priority: relaying the idea of the original text clearly and intelligibly Can full equivalence be achieved?

Striving for *fidelity and clarity*

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(Not) Controlled vocabularies

French:

Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po

CEMIPOF

Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po (CEMIPOF)

Centre d'études de la vie politique française

English:

Center of political researches of Sciences Po (CEMIPOF)

Importance of CVs!
# Cultural expressions (1)

**Source language:**

"punaiset tuvat ja perunamaat"

**Target language 1:**

"red cottages and potato fields"

**Target language 2:**

"typical Finnish countryside"

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Source: https://tietoarkistoblogi.blogspot.com/2018/12/translation-and-international-data-use.html
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## Cultural expressions (2)

Source language: L'Obs > Politique > Municipales 2014

**Municipales : le PS coulé par la vague bleue**

Target language: “right-wing parties”

## Errors in the original text
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## Ideal situation

In-house translator

## And in real life?

Translation process at the CDSP

Professional translator

Proofreading

Review of the original source language version

Going back and standardizing and harmonising metadata. Using controlled vocabularies. The initial cost quickly amortised.

what are other
words for
ideal situation?

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optimum, best-case scenario,
goal, ideal, best, target

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Conclusion

Should we translate variables metadata?

CESSDA Euro Question Bank (EQB) for inspiration.

Translating metadata allowed us to reassess them and
improve our processes.