Translating a scientific paper into English before submission

Before translating: freeze and prepare the manuscript

Translation should be done on a stable version. Any change made to the French text afterwards has to be carried over by hand into the English version, with a real risk of the two drifting apart. Wait until every co-author has signed off the manuscript.

Read the journal's instructions for authors

The author guidelines often set requirements that directly affect translation:

• the expected variety of English (British or American);
• the maximum length of the abstract and main text, in words;
• the required structure (structured abstract, sections, keywords);
• the reference style and how to cite non-English sources.

Write these constraints down: they will become your checklist for the final read-through.

Choose the right file

Start from your source file rather than an export. Manuce accepts Word (.docx), PDF with a text layer, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF and CSV, up to 40 MB. A .docx is the easiest to rework afterwards; a scanned PDF with no text layer cannot be processed. If you write in LaTeX, the .tex format is not on that list, so produce a Word version or a text-based PDF first. To keep your styles and tables intact, see how to translate a Word document without losing its formatting.

Draw up a short glossary

List the key terms of your study alongside the English equivalents established in the literature you cite. You will check them in the translation: it is the most worthwhile check in the whole process.

What a scientific translation must get right

Field-specific terminology

A paper is read by peers who know the exact terms. A clinical essai becomes a trial, not an essay; échantillon may be sample or specimen depending on the discipline; significatif should only become significant when it genuinely refers to statistical significance. That is why Manuce assigns these documents to Curie, the scientific and medical specialist, rather than to a general-purpose engine.

Number conventions

• the French decimal comma becomes a point: 0,05 is written 0.05;
• SI units stay the same, but spacing and thousands separators follow the journal's style;
• French acronyms (ADN, ARN, IC) take their English form (DNA, RNA, CI), defined at first use.

Hedging

The strength of a claim is part of the finding. Ces données suggèrent must not turn into these data prove; pourrait, semble and probablement have their counterparts (may, appears to, likely). Make sure the level of certainty is identical in both languages, particularly in the abstract and conclusion.

Verb tenses

Scientific English generally reports methods and results in the past tense and established knowledge in the present. French readily uses the narrative present, so keep an eye on the Methods section.

Which level to choose: a worked example

Take a 7,000-word paper (about 18 pages), French into English, a standard language (coefficient ×1.0). These are the prices shown on the quote on the day of writing:

The Professional breakdown: 5,000 words at 1.8 cents, then 2,000 words at 1.64 cents, giving €122.80, rounded up to €123. VAT not applicable, article 293 B du CGI. Express delivery costs +0 % and the original layout is included. For a text going to peer review, Professional is a sensible minimum; Premium is worth it for a highly selective journal.

If a consortium also needs German and Spanish versions, the 30 % discount for three languages brings the Professional total down to €258 instead of €368.40. Labs that translate regularly can open a business account: a single monthly invoice, no subscription, and −25 % on translations. The full price list is on the pricing page, and our guide to professional translation prices explains how to read it.

Translating the paper with Manuce, step by step

1. Upload the file in the app: the word count is taken from the actual document.
2. Select English as the target language, choose the level and, if needed, add other languages from the 96 available.
3. Review the quote, shown before any payment.
4. Read the free translated extract and check a few terms from your glossary.
5. Confirm: the translation is delivered within minutes to your client area and by email, with images, tables and fonts in place.

The specifics of this language pair are covered on the French to English translation page.

Check before you submit

Responsibility for the submitted text remains with the authors. Plan a targeted read-through:

• figures, p-values, intervals and units, compared line by line with the original tables;
• the glossary: each key term rendered the same way throughout;
• the abstract: within the journal's word limit, with keywords consistent with the text;
• figures: text that is part of an image is not editable text, so regenerate the chart in English;
• the variety of English: no mixing of colour and color;
• references: titles of cited works stay as published, never retranslated.

For broader pitfalls, see the 8 mistakes to avoid when translating a document into English.

Unpublished results: the confidentiality question

A manuscript before submission contains unpublished data. With Manuce, no file is read by a human, servers are in France and documents are never used for training. Full details are in the privacy policy. It is a criterion worth weighing if you are tempted by a free tool: see our comparison DeepL, Google Translate or a professional service.

What Manuce does not do

Manuce does not provide sworn translation. If a job or funding application requires a certified translation of a degree certificate or official record, contact a sworn translator registered with a French court of appeal (see when sworn translation is mandatory). Scanned PDFs without a text layer are not processed. Finally, a translation replaces neither your peers' feedback nor the journal's editorial work.