Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Termerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
BMJ Glob Health. 2022 May;7(5). doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-008674.
In an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, evidence to evaluate complex interventions may be generated in multiple languages. However, despite its influence in shaping the evidence base, there is little literature explicitly connecting the translation process to the goals and processes of implementation research. This study aims to explore the processes and experience of an international implementation research team conducting a process evaluation of a complex intervention in Tibet Autonomous Region, China.
This study uses a collaborative autoethnographic approach to explore the translation process from Chinese or Tibetan to English of key stakeholder interview transcripts. In this approach, multiple researchers and translators contributed their reflections, and conducted joint analysis through dialogue, reflection and with consideration of multiple perspectives. Seven researchers involved with the translation process contributed their perspectives through in-depth interviews or written reflections and jointly analysed the resulting data.
We describe the translation process, synthesise key challenges including developing a 'voice' and tone as a translator, conveying the depth of idioms across languages, and distance from the study context. We further offer lessons learnt including the importance of word banks with unified translations of words and phrases created iteratively during the translation process, the need to collaborate between translators and the introspective work necessary for translators to explore their positionality and reflexivity during the work. We then offer a summary of these learnings for other implementation research teams.
Our findings emphasise that in order to ensure rigour in their work, implementation research teams using qualitative data should make concerted effort to consider both the translation process as well as its outcomes. Given the numerous multinational or multilingual implementation research studies using qualitative methods, there is a need for further consideration and reflection on the translation process.
在全球化和互联日益紧密的世界中，评估复杂干预措施的证据可能产生于多种语言。然而，尽管翻译对构建证据基础具有重要影响，但很少有文献明确将翻译过程与实施研究的目标和过程联系起来。本研究旨在探讨一个国际实施研究团队在中国西藏自治区开展一项复杂干预措施的过程评估的翻译过程和经验。
本研究采用合作自传体方法，探索将关键利益相关者访谈记录从中文或藏文翻译成英文的翻译过程。在这种方法中，多名研究人员和翻译人员共同反思，并通过对话、反思和考虑多种观点进行联合分析。参与翻译过程的 7 名研究人员通过深入访谈或书面反思，贡献了他们的观点，并共同分析了由此产生的数据。
我们描述了翻译过程，综合了关键挑战，包括作为翻译者发展“声音”和语调、在语言之间传达成语的深度，以及与研究背景的距离。我们进一步提供了经验教训，包括创建统一翻译的词汇银行的重要性，这些词汇和短语是在翻译过程中迭代创建的，以及翻译者之间合作的必要性，以及翻译者在工作中探索自身定位和反思性的内在工作。然后，我们为其他实施研究团队总结了这些经验教训。
我们的研究结果强调，为了确保工作的严谨性，使用定性数据的实施研究团队应该共同努力，既要考虑翻译过程，也要考虑其结果。鉴于众多采用定性方法的多国或多语言实施研究，需要进一步考虑和反思翻译过程。
