Online scientific data sources

The following are a list of free scientific sources available online. The first one is called scirus. It’s a search engine on scientific information bringing together several academic websites providing authentic and reliable research sources as well as data banks.
scirus
Free archive of life science journals : http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/
Free journal access : www.openj-gate.com
Publication division of American chemical society : www.pubs.acs.org
Bilingual website on geography : http://www.cybergeo.eu/
Technical and scientific translation requires precision and above all the right term. It is all the more important to find the correct term from a dependable source. Often translators loose a lot of time looking for a justifiable choice. Happy searching!

MIT openwarecourse

Michel Drucker is a very popular and well respected T.V anchorman in France. Every Sunday he hosts a programme called “Vivement Dimanche prochain”. It’s a kind of a talk show with celebrities and entertainers including book and movie reviews. While watching the programme, I got a very interesting piece of news, namely the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has opened up a host of its courses online. One can freely access thousands of course content offered by this prestigious Institute. Here’s the link:
mitopencourseware. By entering keywords such as translation studies, linguistics etc. it is possible to read up the course contents, handouts and even solve exercises.

Wordnet

I heard about Wordnet during a seminar in the University some 18 months ago. Since then I have been using the window version of this incredible search tool. It’s handy, fast and user-friendly. The following link leads to the online search page. The homepage provides a downloadable version for both linux and window os.
wordnet

 

Interlecta text translator

A Facebook application which translates into several languages. As a Facebook user (limited, I must say) I have just added this application to test its efficiency level. I started looking for such an application as I came across a report on the BBC website about the Spanish version of Facebook. According to official sources 1,500 spanish-speaking Facebook users have translated the site in less than four weeks with the help of a built-in application. Quite an achievement. I was wondering if that application is Interlecta text translator. It seems that in a few days’ time users accessing Facebook from spanish-speaking regions will automatically see the Spanish version. The same will follow for French and German.

Termscience

Recently I came across a couple of internet sources in the technical area. The first website is called Termscience. Well, it’s a heaven for all those involved in scientific studies and not merely the translators. This terminological database is authentic and reliable source with hosts such as the CNRS and INRA in France. The home page is in French. But the link leading to the ” ressources terminologiques” contains a veritable mine of information on subjects ranging from agriculture to zoology. Here is the direct link:Termscience
Further forays in the website revealed various English language links. Not surprising since almost 70 % of the worlds scientific literature is written in English. Going through the pages I alsocame across an interesting website called:Metamodel ,though it is not scientific in nature.