What Is Linguistic Validation Translation?

Linguistic validation refers to the process of validating texts that have been translated to another language by linguists to ensure that the meaning has remained the same conceptually between the original and translated version. It is most often used when performing clinical trials of new medicines when the responses patients provide to questionnaires about treatments are vitally important to an assessment of their efficacy.
Linguistic validation needs to take into account cultural differences between different language speakers that can influence the interpretation of a text. The process usually involves producing multiple translations, combining them into a single version and then backtranslating into the original language to see if any meaning has been lost. Checking that the concepts contained in the original text have been successfully communicated into the translated version of the document is also an important part of the linguist validation translation process.