RIC International is a US-based global translation company. We specialize in providing medical, engineering, and technical translation services in all the major European, Asian, and American languages. Our specialization, focus, industry-leading quality management standards, and customer-centered attitude have earned us the trust of many of the world's best technology, bio-medical, and pharmaceutical companies.
Types of Translation Services We Provide

RIC International has two divisions – Technical and Engineering Translation Group and Medical and Pharmaceutical Translation Group. Both groups provide a full range of translation services: document translation, software and web localization, interpreting, and multilingual desktop publishing.

We translate documents in 80 global languages, though most of our work is centered on translating between English and the dozen major European, Asian, and South American Languages, such as German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
Clients and Industries We Serve

RIC International translates medical and engineering documents, software, patents, and websites for over 500 clients ranging from Fortune 100 multinationals, such as General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Merck, and Pfizer, to small and mid-size technology and biopharmaceutical companies, such as Amgen, Check Point Software, Mettler-Toledo, and Tektronix.

We offer a depth of subject-matter expertise and globalization know-how for companies in the Aerospace, Defense, Electronics, Engineering, Information Technology, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals, Semiconductors, Telecommunications, and related industries.

Mission Statement: RIC International is unique among the translation services companies for a number of reasons, all of them stemming from our original mission – RIC International is the only major company in the translation industry founded and managed by translators with backgrounds in engineering, science and medicine, not by people whose primary experience is in languages or business.

At RIC International, we are driven by the mission to set the new Standard of Quality for technical translation and localization. It is this mission that drives our success, and it is what sets us apart as a translation service:

* We are focused exclusively on technical subjects:
RIC International's technical systems, human resources, and Quality Control infrastructure are designed for the tasks and quality control requirements of the physical and life sciences, engineering, software development, and related industries.
* We match precisely the translators with the subject areas:
All RIC International translators hold advanced industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, life sciences, medicine, or similar technical degrees, and have professional work experience – not just translation experience – in their subject areas.
* Dependable and client-focused project management:
We always assign a primary project manager to every client, assuring a single point of contact, no matter how many individual client representatives need to interact with us during our work. This dedicated Project Manager knows and understands your specific requirements, preferences, and personnel, and is available 24/7, keeping timelines and schedules on track and providing customized status reports.
* Cost savings and fast project turnaround:
RIC International has designed and implemented a number of solutions and technologies that, in most circumstances, enable us to reduce client costs and the time required to provide our services.

Medical Translation Services

Can you paraphrase the following sentence?

"The test suggests that the additional cannula from the visceral pleura resulted in pulmonary function improvements in the approximate range of 500% from forced expiratory volumes in one-second (FEV1) measurements."

If you didn't have a background in medicine, you probably couldn't. Well, translation is, fundamentally, paraphrasing. Would you entrust your FDA documentation or Adverse Events Reports to a translator without an M.D.?

At RIC International, we hold to the principle:
If You Don't Understand It, You Cannot Translate It!

That is why RIC International requires that all Medical Translators and Translation Editors have to have education, training, and work experience in the areas of medicine matching the subject matter they translate. Our meticulous Quality Control system is the most thorough in the industry, with a system of checks and balances in place throughout the entire process – from the selection of project managers to the final proof-reading of the document.

Three Components of Medical Translation

Rapid and cost effective production of high-quality translations for the pharmaceutical and clinical research industries requires integration of three components:

* Specialized teams of medical translators, editors, proofreaders, and project managers;
* Translation Tools, such as a state-of-the-art Translation Memory system; and
* Rigorous quality control processes.

Medical Translation Teams: Roles and Qualifications

At RIC International, medical translation teams consist of one or more translators, an editor, a proofreader, a project manager, and possibly a multilingual graphics specialist. Translation teams are assembled for each individual project based on specific requirements of the project. If a project involves more than one language pair, a separate team is assigned to each pair.

Each translation team has one to four translators but only one editor. It is hard for an editor to maintain quality and consistency of translation when working with more than four translators simultaneously. For large projects with short deadlines, when more than four translators working in parallel are required, the Project Manager assembles several translation teams and assigns one Editor-in-Chief for each language pair (see below).

Translators perform the initial translation of the document. The Editor verifies the quality of translation, coordinates terminology and style usage, resolves terminological disagreements among the translators, as well as maintains and updates project-specific Glossary, Translation Memory, and the Style Sheet.

Glossaries and Translation Memory are vitally important for maintaining consistency of translation not just among the several translators but between various versions of the same document and the other documents for the same client. Consistency and standardization are particularly important when translating documents containing clinical data. This is because programs that identify statistical patterns in data from different sites cannot recognize identical phrases with different spacing or punctuation, or synonyms such as "pain" and "ache".

Proofreaders have various roles. They verify correctness of numerical transcriptions, assemble the translated fragments from different translations into a whole document, re-insert graphics, and verify that all parts of the source document have been included. They do the final reading of the fully assembled document to ensure that the translation reads at least as well in the target language as does the source text.

The Project Manager is responsible for the timely delivery of the final translation according to the exact client specifications. Project Manager's tasks include assembling the medical translation team with skills that are appropriate to the subject matter and style of the source documents. In addition, the PM must preserve mutual anonymity between translators and editors. As with peer review of academic journals, mutual anonymity enables editors to comment frankly on translators' work.

A translation team should be able to change its capacity according to demand. The fixed members are the project manager, editor, and the proof-reader, whilst the number of translators at any one time should vary according to demand. If more than four translators are needed, a second editor should also be hired, and the most senior editor should coordinate all work in a particular language.
Skills of Medical Translators and Translation Editors

The five most important qualifications of a medical translator are:

1. Medical training and knowledge specific to the material to be translated (e.g. pharmaceutical trials if the document is a case report form);
2. Experience in the relevant scientific field in a country in which the target language is the medium of communication. The target language is the language into which the document is to be translated, usually English;
3. Experience in a country in which the source language is the medium of communication. The source language is the language in which the document to be translated was written, for instance Russian;
4. Native grasp of the target language (English);
5. The ability to write well in the target language (English).

The importance of the above qualifications varies. For example, the ability to write well in the target language matters more when translating an article for publication than when translating patient notes for a clinical trial. It is crucial for the translator to be able to write clearly, in current idioms. Few people can write well in a foreign language – indeed, many cannot even write clearly even in their native language.
You Mean Your Translators Are Real Physicians???

Many people are surprised to learn that a medical translator needs medical training and medical experience. Consider, for example, the phrase "potassium channel blocker." A translator without a background in neuroscience cannot know whether the phrase means a potassium blocker of channels or a blocker of potassium channels. Furthermore, he cannot translate each word literally, because a chain of three nouns is – in most languages – ungrammatical.

By contrast, a translator with a background in neuroscience knows that the second translation is correct. (Other examples of why technical translation ought to be performed by subject matter specialists are elaborated in the "Is Subject Matter Expertise Really Important for Technical Translation?" section of this site.)

Ideally, the translator should reside in the target country and the editor in the source country. This way, it is more likely that the translator has a sound grasp of current idioms. Furthermore, the editor is well positioned to ask the document's authors to clarify ambiguous passages, or seek their permission to make non-literal translations. Lastly, a translator and editor who reside in different countries are more likely not to know each other, hence preserving the "peer review" aspect of quality control of translation.
Translation Tools: A Critical Component of Translation Quality Management System

Quality and speed of translation require more than just a good translation team. They require the use – synchronously and longitudinally – of translation tools, including client-specific glossaries and translation memory.
Client-specific Medical Glossaries

Client-specific Medical Glossaries are built by translation teams because even the most qualified translators in the world do not always agree on the best translation of every term. Often several translation options are valid; however, inconsistent selection of these terms, and switching among alternative styles, are unacceptable and lead to loss of comprehension.

To maintain consistent terminology usage between the translators and editors during translation work, and to ensure that all future translations use the same terminology, translation teams create specialized glossaries for each subject and document type they translate. These client-specific medical glossaries are maintained and updated by the Editor-in-Chief.
Use of Translation Memory Systems in Medical Translation

Our Medical Translation Group at RIC International relies heavily on Translation Memory (TM) tools. Translation Memory should not be confused with Machine Translation – Machine Translation is decades away from being sufficiently useful for medical translation.

Translation Memory, on the other hand, is a database application technology we have been using for over 15 years. The TM system monitors the progress of translation in real time and memorizes each linguistic unit (sentence, phrase or block of text) with its translation. When the linguistic unit re-occurs, the TM tool notifies the translator and allows him to insert the saved translation if he so desires.

These Translation Memory systems can both increase productivity of our translators and enhance the quality of their translation. The use of Translation Memory leads to greater consistency as the same phrases and terminology are translated identically throughout each revision of each document, even if different translators work on different portions of the document or revisions of the document. Translation Memory can also significantly decrease the time spent translating, thus lowering the cost to the client and allowing quicker turnaround of translation projects.
Translation Workflow Integration and the Total Cost of Medical Translation

The direct cost of translation – the money paid to the translation agencies or to the in-house translation team – is often less than half of the indirect cost of translation. Indirect costs involve not just management of the translation team and the usual corporate overhead, but the costs of integrating the translation process into the client company's own workflow.
Internal Costs of Translation Projects

Not only does one need to keep meticulous track of what has been translated in the past to avoid unnecessary re-translation and to keep track of the various multilingual versions of each document – a large portion of the indirect cost of translation is inserting the translated text into the right place in the databases and document management systems.

For example, during the recent multi-site multinational clinical trial conducted by one of RIC International's clients, a major US-based Clinical Research Organization, our translators received hundreds of documents from foreign sites each month over the course of several years. Many of the documents were one-page patient notes, operative reports, autopsy reports, hospital records, adverse event reports, etc.

That data was typically sent from each local site to the CRO's local offices, faxed from there to the trial coordinators, forwarded to the RIC International's translation team dispersed over a dozen countries, then sent back to the trial coordinators, and only after that entered into the trial database.

All these document transfers increase the likelihood of introducing errors, mislabeling the information, incorrectly naming the documents, and inadvertently breaching the trial confidentiality. If the documents, on the other hand, from the start were (a) entered by the local research team into the online database, (b) the translation team was electronically notified of the new additions, and (c) the team could work directly within the trial database, not only would the possibilities of errors and data loss be reduced, but the costs of pushing the documents around the world could be largely eliminated.

Technical Translation Services

RIC International is a U.S.-based global translation company focused exclusively on the translation of technical, engineering, and scientific documents where precision, accuracy, and consistency are particularly important – and notoriously hard to achieve. In fact, RIC International is the only major translation company founded and managed by translators with backgrounds in science and technology.

Science and technology are distinguished among the other fields of knowledge by the precision of their concepts and language. An inaccurate or unclear translation of technical specifications, a patent, or an operation manual may not only undermine the corporate image and the brand of a company – it could be outright dangerous and expose the company to unforeseen liabilities.

Software Localization and Internationalization Services

RIC International provides a full range of localization and internationalization services to companies ranging from Fortune 100 to small biotechnology start-ups. We help companies adapt their software, websites, and web applications for use in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
How is Localization Different from Translation?

Localization of software is adapting software for use in various languages and locales. Localization involves more than just translation of user interface (UI) and documentation. Software may need to be adapted for dealing with:

* Local APIs (Application Programming Interface), operating systems, search engines, or even currency and accounting standards;
* Double byte characters used in Asian languages, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean;
* Right-to-left writing systems of Arabic, Hebrew, or Farsi;
* Culture-dependent meanings of icons and underlying connotations of color schemes;
* Sorting algorithms for non-Roman character sets;
* Enabling various input methods;
* Locale-dependent variations, such as date formats (dd-mm-yyyy vs. mm-dd-yyyy), calendar systems (e.g., Japanese use an Imperial Calendar, Muslim and Hebrew calendars are based on lunar months), currency, address formats, etc.

Internationalization

Before embarking on a localization program, it is important to verify that your software is adequately Internationalized. Internationalization is a process of making software ready for rapid and cost-effective localization into (practically) any language and for any locale. Internationalization does not involve any translation at all. It is simply making changes to the software to make both localization and maintenance of international versions easier.

Ideally, Internationalization is a fundamental part of the product design and development process. In reality, a vast majority of software needs further internationalization work after it is released in the American market. Internationalization involves, among other things:

* Enabling software installation and operation with foreign characters sets, platforms, and other localized programs (I18N Enablement);
* Enabling software to be easily translated, maintained, and supported after it is localized;
* Externalizing translatable resources from executable binaries and creating resource-only libraries;
* Moving button and graphics text into string variables;
* Adopting single source materials for documentation management.

Benefits of Upfront Internationalization

In the real world, it is rare to see software that has been one hundred percent internationalized. But doing as much Internationalization upfront as possible before starting the Localization and translation processes has benefits that tend to far outweigh the costs. Internationalization can:

* Facilitate smooth translation process and tracking of future updates
* Allow for increasing product language set — easily!
* Reduce support costs (one set of binaries, not unique product versions);
* Enable bug fixes to apply to all languages, and the same bug fixes can be delivered to worldwide customer base;

The more thorough the Internationalization process is, the better the outcome of the whole software development process in terms of:

* Stronger code integrity;
* Faster turnaround;
* Better quality of the code;
* Reduced overall costs;
* Consistency;
* Satisfied international customer base;
* Efficient software updates;

In other words, Internationalization saves money and prevents many problems!
Localization Process

In order to help your development and business teams, our localization engineers, Internationalization specialists, and software programmers are available to you to assess your needs and develop the most cost-effective and practical solutions for your organization. They can do as much or as little as you need: from educating your technical team on internationalization issues and guiding them through your internal internationalization process; to helping you plan and budget the process and design internationalization QA tests; to getting involved in the whole internationalization process hands-on. The choice is yours.

After completing Internationalization — or, more likely — completing it up to the constraints imposed by real-world time and budget pressures, we are ready to start localization. Unlike Internationalization, which involves engineers and business managers, Localization involves a team of translators, localization engineers, multilingual desktop publishers, QA engineers, testers, and a localization project manager. RIC International can localize your software into any major European, Asian, Middle Eastern or Latin American language, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, etc.

From the day we receive the source files to the day we deliver the completed technical translation, RIC International's unsurpassed measure of quality control is evident throughout the process.

Our translators:

The most important determining factor of translation quality is the expertise of the translators. Translators have to understand the subject matter they are translating at least as well as the audience the documents target. In the case of technical, scientific, and medical translation the target audience often has M.D. or Ph.D. degrees in the sciences - and our translators do, too. In addition to their subject matter expertise, RIC translators have to have all the basic skills required of all professional translators - the ability to write clear, comprehensible prose, excellent language and translation skills, and native-level command of the language into which they are translating.

RIC International requires the following qualifications from all candidates for accreditation with us:

* Hold an advanced degree in the subject matter to be translated (MD, Ph.D, M.S.E.E., etc.).
* Have extensive work experience within the relevant field of science, engineering, medicine or law.
* Have at least 7 years of experience translating technical documents in the language pair and subject to be translated.

At RIC International, we hold fast to the principle:

If you do not understand it, you cannot translate it.

Follow these links to obtain more specific information about Technical Translator Qualification Requirements and the RIC International Program for Accreditation of Technical and Medical Translators.
Our technology:

Using the most advanced Translation Memory (TM) tools such as Trados™ and SDLX™, the same phrases are translated identically and the terminology is used consistently even if different translators work on different portions of the document. TM tools also decrease the translation time, resulting in faster turnaround and decreased cost to the client.
Our editing process:

To minimize the chances of an error or omission in language or information, RIC International requires that three pairs of expert eyes look at all content from beginning to end: translator, editor, and proofreader. Each is a professional full-time translator, a native speaker of the target language, and meets the translator qualifications specified above.
Our Project Management:

RIC International will assign a dedicated Project Manager as the single point of contact for each client. RIC International's Project Managers will always take the time to understand your technical requirements, writing style, and communication strategy. They will:

* Customize translation process work-flow based on your specific needs;
* Prepare and monitor quality assurance checklists;
* Communicate proactively with you at each milestone to resolve linguistic issues and technical problems;
* Maintain multi-lingual glossaries and translation memory specific to your projects; and
* Document individual project history

The Project Managers may ask for your input at different stages of the translation process, and offer RIC International's opinions where, in their judgment, they will be helpful.

American Translators Association, New England Translators Association.

Online quoting is available at: http://www.ricintl.com

English

technical, medical, patent, engineering, information technology, translation, desktop publishing, localization.