Wikibooks:Content translation

The following draft outlines the Wikibooks policy on translating content from non-English Wiki projects into English.

Machine translation

Machine translation is the use of machine learning and specialized software to translate text from one language to another. Methods include rule-based (e.g. Apertium), statistical, and neural network (e.g. Google Translate, DeepL), with pros and cons inherent to each. In general, machine translation can vary considerably in quality of translation from tool to tool and language to language. For example, machine translation can have difficulty with individual words or expressions for many reasons, including false friends, false cognates, literal translation, neologisms, slang, idiomatic expressions and other unrecognized compounds, words with multiple meanings, words with specialized meanings in certain knowledge domains different from a common meaning of a word in a more general context, unwarranted translation of proper names, etc. In addition, be aware that the output can be grammatically correct but still a flawed or even inaccurate translation from the original.

Due to the above limitations, use of machine translation must be used with care and caution, and the following rules apply to its use here:

1. Unedited machine translations should never be incorporated into Wikibooks. All translations must be carefully reviewed to spot errors.
2. An editor must be familiar with both the subject matter of the translated text and the target language (English), so that they can identify incorrect or illogical information in the translation. Editors who are not well-versed in the subject matter may not perform machine translation, and repeated misuse of the tools may result in loss of editing privileges.
3. It is good practice to perform a translation using multiple methods/softwares in order to create the best final translation. Dictionaries can also be helpful for deciphering specific words or phrases.
4. LLMs or chatbots not specialized for translation (e.g. ChatGPT) may not be used as translation tools.

Rights and attribution

Translations of copyrighted text, even from other Wikimedia projects, are derivative works, and attribution must be given to satisfy licensing requirements. When translating material from a Wikimedia project licensed under CC BY-SA, a note identifying the Wikimedia source (such as an interlanguage link) and the page name must be provided in an edit summary in the translated page, ideally in its first edit. For example:

Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikibooks page at fr:Exact name of French page; see its history for attribution.