WikiProjectMed:Translation task force

Translation Task Force

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The Healthcare Translation Task Force – brings high quality, easy to understand health information to as many languages as possible. We start by creating well referenced 200 to 500 word summaries of key health topics in English followed by translation by volunteers with proficiency in the target language. Efforts began in 2011 as a joint venture between Wiki Project Med Foundation and Translators Without Borders, since which many other partners and volunteers have contributed.

Together we have created over 25,000 translations, representing more than 23 million words of text and worked in more then 150 languages! This translated content has received more than billions of pageviews since we began collecting data in 2015. And work has been carried out by more than 3,250 translators.

In 2021 the project was relaunched within the MDWiki - Wikipedia environment, using our translation dashboard. To join simply open the dashboard, log in using your Wikipedia credentials, enter your target language (using the two letter language code), and hit "Do it". Once the list of missing articles is generated, hit "translate" to start work on an article.

Mobile

The tool works best on a desktop. Mobile translation is available in a few languages with more being added as time goes on.

Campaigns

We have an overall campaign plus campaigns on specific topics including Women's Health, Essential Medicines, and Hearing topics.

Translation process

Steps to translate an article
	Open the dashboard. To login click "login" and "Log in with your Wikipedia account". If you do not yet have a Wikipedia account please create one.
	(1) Enter the two letter language code for the target language (2) Click "Do it" (3) Select the article you want to translate
	You must now correct the machine translation of the title, infobox, and body of the text as found on the right side of your screen.
	The final step is publishing. You can user the gear icon to select if you want to publish live or if your not yet ready, as a personal draft.

References and infobox

If you notice references are missing or the infobox is not working please reach out to us.

Q&A

1) Why is the starting content separate from English Wikipedia?

Some on English Wikipedia do not see English Wikipedia as an appropriate place to develop content for translation into other languages.[1] For example some oppose using easier to understand language[2] and others oppose the use of references in the lead.[3][4] Working from here also allows pre-processing of article content to address issues within the content translation tool,[5] and gives us the ability to collect metrics. Simple put we have a greater ability to manage things.

2) Why is only the lead available for translation?

We have had a number of languages request that smaller amount of content be translated as entire articles are more content than certain communities have the capacity to maintain. Additionally typically we here have only extensively reviewed and rewritten the leads for accuracy. We are looking at adding the ability to translate entire articles for those who wish to do so.

• How to link to full article translations[6].

Tools

• Backup version
• Tool for fixing references
• CTX debugger (explanation)
• Linking to specific categories
• Other translation projects

Further details

Get in touch!

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Doc James
Dr. James Heilman
jmh649gmail.com
ER Physician, Project Lead

Lucas559
Lucas Rosnau
lrosnaugmail.com
Translator Coordinator

Mr. Ibrahem
Ibrahem Al-Radaei
ibrahem.al-radaeioutlook.com
Programmer

Press

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Imagine if all our health information was available only in Dutch!

Lori Thicke, TwB GlobalVoices-Rising Voices: Translating Health Content Without Borders

We are working to build a world where knowledge doesn't have borders

Lori Thicke, TwB The Guardian: Translators fight the fatal effects of the language gap

• "Antidote for a stigma: Translated content on vaccines helps fight a taboo", Times of India, October 22, 2016
• "Making Wikipedia’s medical articles accessible in Chinese", Wikimedia Blog, June 2, 2015
• "A Fight for Awareness in the Age of Globalization", Huffington Post, October 2, 2014
• "Doctors and Translators Are Working Together to Bridge Wikipedia's Medical Language Gap", Global Voices & Wikimedia Blog, July 27, 2014
• "Translating Health Content Without Borders", Global Voices, August 30, 2012
• "Leveraging the Web to Overcome Challenges in the Developing World", EContent Magazine, July 5, 2012
• "Translators fight the fatal effects of the language gap" The Guardian, April 11, 2012