An inquiry on publishers’ criteria for recruitment of translators

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the criteria considered by Iranian publishers for admitting translators. In order to achieve this purpose, the qualifications developed by Samuelson-Brown were employed to design a 19-item Likert scale questionnaire on a continuum from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. Some of the qualifications mentioned in the questionnaire were academic degree, translation competence, work experience, proficiency test, translators’ sense of responsibility for their task and the direct relationship between the publishers and the translators. Next, it was handed out to 140 Iranian publishers who were randomly selected as the participants from different parts of Iran for data collection. The collected data were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively using the chi-squared test to see whether there were any significant relationships between each item and the participants’ attitudes. The qualitative results showed that almost all participants agreed with considering most qualifications as their own criteria to recruit translators, of course with some variations in their opinions on the significance of the variables of interest. However, the result of the chi-squared test showed a significant relationship only between four variables of inclusion of proficiency test, computer literacy, the translators’ relationship with the publisher and gender. The results can have some practical implications on translation course developers, students and teachers.

Keywords: Criteria, publisher, recruitment, translation, translators.