Error Analysis Of Published Medical English Research Articles In China And Its Implication For Translation

Academic exchange is an important approach for researchers in different countries to present their research findings.For Chinese medical researchers,it is of great importance to show their findings on the international platform so as to improve international influence.English has now become the major language tool for the publication of biomedical research articles.However,the language quality of articles varies,and errors even appear in published journal articles.On the basis of the attested feasibility by a pilot study,this research randomly selected 50 IMRD(introduction,materials and methods,results and discussion)structure articles written by Chinese authors and published in domestic English journal in the last five years.The selected journals meet the criteria of representativeness and reputation.Following Carl James’ methodology of error analysis,this study analyzed errors in the discussion section of the articles,presented the error distribution at substance,text and discourse levels,diagnosed the cause of errors,and suggested corresponding strategies to improve medical translation.Results showed that a total of 477 errors were identified in the present corpus,distributing at all three levels: substance level(9.01%),text level(71.91%)and discourse level(19.08%).The number of text errors was significantly higher than that of substance errors and discourse errors(both P<0.001).Errors at substance level included misspelling and non-standard use of abbreviation;errors at text level included lexical and grammar errors,and grammar errors(65.89%)showed higher proportion than lexical errors(34.11%);errors at discourse level were the incoherence of contents.The causes of errors included negative transfer of mother tongue and the deficiencies of target language.Based on error analyses,this study proposed strategies for medical translation at levels of lexis,grammar and discourse.A translator should train a way of thinking that is consistent with English,study the lexical and semantic relations of English,and master rules of grammar and syntax,thereby avoiding interlingual and intralingual errors.This study aims to provide references for medical researchers to reduce errors and improve the language quality in medical writing and translation,help translators to provide better service,lay a theoretical and practice foundation for teachers and students in medical writing / translation courses,and help the editors of medical English journals in China to identify errors in pre-published manuscript,so as to increase the language quality and the influence of the journals.