THE INDUSTRIAL STANDARD OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA - QUALITY STANDARD OF TRANSLATION SERVICE SPECIFICATION

THE INDUSTRIAL STANDARD OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
QUALITY STANDARD OF TRANSLATION SERVICE SPECIFICATION (1)

　　Translation service provider shall set their final target as “Good Faith” and fully meeting the requirements of the clients. Based on these criteria, the service providers may establish their own quality policies and criteria according to the physical conditions of themselves. The scope of translation quality standard for the translation service provider include: reception, project ID, working flow, quality assurance, documentation and archiving, customer feedback, quality tracing, responsibilities, etc.
3.1 Business Reception
3.1.1 Reception is a window of the translation service provider; it is required to show the business license, tax registration certificate or other relative documents where appropriate in an easily-seen place. The reception staff shall be familiar with the working flow, service scope, and translation rates of the company where they are employed, necessary duration for the jobs, as well as the company’s achievements. They shall serve their clients with sincerity and honesty, wear proper business attire and present themselves in an appropriate manner, professionally answer the questions and consultation from the clients.
3.1.2 The Business Reception is divided into a few categories. The business discussion in the reception room is a process of fully understanding the client’s intention, and therefore it is required to make a detailed record: the fully name of the customer, their contacts, language pair, the purpose of the translation, words counting agreed by both parties, agreed translation rates, time needed for the job, regulations for the finished works and the quality requirements, technical terms (if the client provides them) , the precise titles (very important for notary certificate translation), advance payment, page number of the original document and/or reference document, project ID (described later), the records shall be confirmed by the customer through signature. For the large jobs or batch-delivered jobs it is required to sign an agreement by both parties which shall contain the following:
- The full name of the customer
- The detailed contacts of the customer (telephone number, cell phone number, fax, address, postal code and email, etc.)
- Agreed contents to be translated (language pair, project, time needed)
- Agreed type of delivery
- Agreed quality requirements
- Agreed confidentiality clauses
- Agreed charge details (word counting, translation rates, surcharges for the charts and images, etc.)
- Agreed payment
3.1.3 Additional services
If the customers expect to obtain additional services, they shall negotiate with the translation service providers (institutes), and such additional services include:
* Glossary documentation
* Image and charts design (picture, formula, tables)
* Drawing processing (typing or zooming of A3# - above large drawing)
* Typeset
* Platemaking, printing
* Document processing by special software rather than Word
The charges for additional services are not included in the translation fee
3.1.4 Authorship & Copyright
The customer shall clarify the purpose and people to utilize the translation to the service provider (institute), and utilize it as agreed. If no agreement made in advance, then the translation copyright and the authorship shall be deemed as be owned by the service provider (institute).
3.1.5 Background and technical terms
If the customer expects the translation to be written in special technical terms, then they shall provide related reference documents to the translator.
Such documents and information may support the translation process significantly. They include:
* Literature
* Glossary
* Term Interpretation and Abbreviation
* Reference texts
* Background texts
* Appointed special software
* Factory or site visiting
Meanwhile, the customer shall list contact persons who are able to answer the questions which may be raised by the translators.

3.2 Job ID

Every document shall have an unique ID which is attached to the document in the whole translation flow, the ID includes the following (one or a few):

- Batch no.
- Duration
- Qty.
- Language pair
- Customer code

The ID may be presented by figures, letters or other means, but it shall be unique.The ID shall be traceable.
Through ID, the customer, translator(s), checker, proofreader, editor, typist, typing checker, printer, delivered-by and document path are all traceable.
3.3 Translation workflow
The management for translation workflow shall cover the following steps: preparation before translation, translation, proofreading, technical proofreading (if necessary), editing, typeset, text checker, printing, quality review, documentation management.
3.3.1 Translation Preparation
The project manager who is responsible for the translation preparation shall understand the detailed customer requirements, based on which he or she makes reasonable project plan including processes, schedule, qualified translator and proofreaders.
Check the source document whether or not there are pages missed or unclear. If that happens he or she shall explain to the customer and request whom to supplement. If clear original copy of the document is impossible, the project manager shall use a pencil to mark it.
The translation shall be based on the copies of the original document; in any case the original document is appropriately saved and shall not be damaged.
3.3.2 Translation
The translator(s) shall be qualified.
They are required to be familiar with the technologies involved, have corresponding dictionaries in hand and handle the translation according to the customer requirements. During the translation it is forbidden that any part is ignored, either deliberately or without intention, for the texts which are difficult to be precisely translated, clear explanation is required.

3.3.2.1 Before starting to translate, the translator(s) shall
* Read the source documents carefully;
* Find out the glossaries
* Read the glossaries provided by the customer;
* Read and sort the documents provided by the customer;
* Further check the words and technical terms in the dictionaries;
* Confidentially discuss with the customer about the problems in the aspects of contents, technology and glossary.
3.3.2.2 The translation shall completely reflect the contents of the source texts.
The footmarks, attachments, tables, lists, statements and charts in the source documents are all required to be translated in the finished works, the texts in the charts and tables must be translated as well, except as otherwise provided for by the customer.
3.3.2.3 Symbols, units, formula and equation.
The symbols, units, formulas and equation shall be in accordance with the common expressions of the target language.
3.3.2.4 Name, title of natural person, business titles and official titles
Except for the artist, historical people, institutes, organizations, animals, buildings, products, literatures, arts, scientific works, geographic names which have already had their fixed translation, normally the names are not permitted to be translated – for the purpose of easily understanding, when it appears for the first time in the text the name may be explained with bracketed translation.
For the titles, only when there is common translation in the target language can they be translated. Also for easy understanding, when it appears for the first time in the text, the title may be explained with bracketed translation.

3.3.2.5 Day markings
The day markings are in accordance with the common expression in the target language, normally it is Gregorian calendar.?
3.3.2.6 New words
If it is assured that there is no commonly agreed translation for a concept in the translation, then we may create a new word, which shall be clearly marked.
3.3.3 Proofreading
The proofreader(s) shall be qualified.
The proofreader shall check the translation word by word according to the source text, and unify the technical terms in the context. The names, numbers, formulas and units are carefully checked in particular. Generally the English or other units in the source text are required to be conversed to metric units. Additionally, the original English or other units are supplemented after it with a bracket. After proofreading the translation shall be precise, fluently expressed, and there are not too much non-smooth expressions. The proofreader uses a pen with different color to distinguish his or her editing.
Proofreading covers:
* Completeness of the translation;
* Whether or not the content and technical terms are correct, whether the words function properly or not;
* If the grammars and wordings are correct, and the expression is appropriate;
* If the terms and conditions of translation quality agreement are observed;
* Whether the notes written by the translator(s) are appropriate;
Determine the proofreading times according to the translation purpose agreed with the customer;
As a special service, it may be considered that a qualified third party is entrusted to perform further proofreading.
3.3.4 Editing
The editor shall be qualified.
The editing is a rework process based on the format of the original copy of document, the fonts of the translation is in accordance with GB11668-89, the layout of the translation is nice, impact and the charts are in the corresponding place of the original copy. The paragraphs are complete. When editing, the color of the pen must differ from the proofreading pen.
3.3.5 Typeset
The typesetter must input the translation text with the original copy and the proofread document in hand, according to the editor’s requirements and by the software agreed by the customer.? It is required the fonts are normalized, no wrong words and the formulas are correct.
3.3.6 Checking typeset
In the course of checking the typeset, the checker shall fill a corrigendum, which is given to the typesetter to correct his or her work, after that the correction is also validated.
3.3.7 Quality inspection
The quality inspector checks the final printing copy with the comparison of the original copy and the translation copy. The inspection is performed in accordance with the customer requirements.
3.3.8 Printings and photocopies
For the quality requirements for the printings and photocopies, please see CY/T13-95.
3.4 Quality Assurance and Responsibilities
3.4.1 The quality guarantee period of the finished translation is six months since the date of delivery.
3.4.2 For the quality standard of the finished translation, please see TSS-101、TSS-102、TSS-103、TSS-104、TSS-105.
3.4.3 During the quality guarantee period, the translation service provider (institute) may perform the following corrections to the mistakes or missed parts which may occur in the translation.
(1) Correct the e-copy for free;
(2) For the publishing copy a corrigenda is issued for free.
3.4.4 If the correction is due to the fault from the customer side, then it is not covered by 3.4.3.
3.4.5 If the translation service provider’s translation has serious quality problems and there the customer cannot utilize it, then the corresponding translation fee is deducted. If the translation is part of a batch, then only part of the translation fee is deducted from the whole amount.
3.4.6 The translation service provider shall not bear any indirect loss of the customer.
3.4.7 If the finished translation of the service provider is confirmed to be unconformity, then the provider shall compensate the customer for his loss.