Under Community Review

Forensics analysis module for plagiarism

Forensics analysis module for plagiarism

This module, included in the Trados Studio QA should be able to detect if two samples of text in the same language (for instance in Spanish or English) provided in two files (file 1 - sample 1 - Spanish, file 2 - sample 2 - Spanish) are identical or almost identical, showing a whole forensic analysis for plagiarism.

In the translation area, the dishonest competition is a very well-known problem. There are many translators wanted to get hired and for that, they wait for a proofreading task. When they have the opportunity to proofread a text, they do a dishonest proofreading, basically copying the same text of the translator, and just modifying it with minor modifications (saying exactly the same but just using synonyms, or changing the order of the words or removing some articles or prepositions). After this, they inform the project manager that the translator is the worst in the world and that he or she did an amazing proofreading job and now the text is fine for the customer. Due the project manager does not know how to speak the target language, they cheat the project manager and kick out the translator, getting all his or her jobs. The translator is fired and the dishonest proofreader was promoted in the agency.

This situation happens constantly and this is a problem.

This is a problem for the translator, because he or she does not get jobs from the agency.

This is a problem for the agency, because they are hiring dishonest translators that could even worse a text.

This is a problem for the project manager, which is confused and do not know who is right.

This is also a problem for the customer, because the delivery of the projects is delayed, due fake errors.

In my opinion, it is very important Trados attach a plagiarism module, in order to help project managers to detect these frauds.