Mining the Minefield : An exploratory study of website evaluation during the translator's terminology work

The Internet – when defined as a massive, uncontrolled database of information – is not a reliable source of information. Despite this, it has developed into the default terminology tool for most translators today. This study explores what criteria are used by translators to define website credibility and whether translation experience affects the criteria used. Three groups of differently experienced translators were asked to translate two technical texts from English to Swedish and document the websites they visited. The documentation was used as the basis for follow-up interviews, where the translators were asked to argue for their choices. The results show a significant similarity in application of criteria between student and experienced translators, indicating that other factors than experience are at play. Moreover, source text complexity does not affect the criteria used but rather to what extent research is performed. These results can be used to encourage further research into the information search behavior of translators