Translating your paper into English for journal publication

Translating your paper into English for journal publication is allowed, and the rules depend on one question: has the paper already been published in another language? If not, the English version is simply a new manuscript. If it has, the English version is a secondary publication, and the medical editors' recommendations, COPE and every publisher we read set conditions on it: the editors agree, the original is cited, the title says it is a translation, and the copyright allows it.

This guide is published by EdCitation. We read the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), COPE, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, PLOS ONE and Nature on 26 September 2026. COPE's and Springer's pages answered with a bot check, so we read archived copies from April and September 2026. A translated reference list is where errors hide, so we ran EdCitation's free Verify references and Cite a source on real entries and quote what came back.

Can you publish a translation of a paper already published in another language?

Yes, as a declared secondary publication, never as a new paper. The ICMJE defines duplicate publication as a paper that "overlaps substantially" with one already published without clear, visible reference to it (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [ICMJE], 2026b). A translation that says what it is and cites its original is not that.

The ICMJE's six conditions

The ICMJE says secondary publication in the same or a different language "may be justifiable" when all of these hold (ICMJE, 2026b):

• the editors of both journals approve, and the second editor sees the original;
• a publication interval agreed by both editors protects the original's priority;
• the translation is for a different group of readers;
• it reports the same authors, data and interpretations;
• it tells readers where the work first appeared and cites the original;
• its title says it is a secondary publication, such as a translation.

Two consequences follow. Your submission letter should say the work has been published, and the editor should get a copy. And the National Library of Medicine does not index a translation of an article from a MEDLINE journal, so the English version may never appear in PubMed.

What COPE adds

COPE Council (2024) says a translation must reference the original work, suggests a statement that names the translator, any funding and any permission from the copyright holder, and notes that editors may ask for proof of that permission. It also names the original's terms of reproduction and its open access status as matters to weigh.

What do publishers allow, and what must you declare?

The large publishers agree on the principle and differ in detail. We read each at source.

Where a translation turns into duplicate publication

Springer's policy is the strictest in wording: submitted work must not have appeared "in any form or language", partially or in full, unless the new work expands it (Springer, n.d.). Elsevier (n.d.) calls sending the same manuscript to two journals at once unacceptable, and requires the secondary version to cite the primary one. Wiley (2026) lists what does not count as prior publication, including theses in institutional archives and preprints. At Wiley, then, a thesis in your language turned into an English article is not prior publication; see turning a dissertation into a journal article. Our guide to self-plagiarism covers reuse that stops short of a whole paper.

Do journals require language editing before submission?

The journals we read do not require a paid service, but they expect readable English, and they differ on what happens when it is not. Nature's formatting guide says no paper will be rejected for poor language and that an editing service "is not a requirement for publication" (Nature, n.d.); Nature Communications (n.d.) says the same. PLOS ONE (n.d.) takes the opposite line: it does not copyedit, asks authors to arrange any editing before first submission, and may reject a paper that falls short of its language standard.

The burden is real and measured. Amano et al. (2023) surveyed 908 environmental scientists. Among those with one English-language paper, 38.1% and 35.9% of the non-native speakers from moderate- and low-proficiency countries had had a paper rejected for its English, against 14.4% of native speakers. In the same group, researchers from moderate-proficiency countries took a median 50.6% longer to write a paper in English.

Two rules are worth knowing wherever you send it. Anyone who edits the language is acknowledged, not listed as an author, unless they did more (ICMJE, 2026a). And Taylor & Francis (n.d.-b) asks authors to declare funding used to pay for language editing or translators. The second-language writing itself is covered in academic writing in a second language.

Do you have to declare machine or AI translation?

Declare it wherever the journal asks, and expect it to ask. Taylor & Francis (n.d.-a) allows AI tools to translate an author's own work, and says a paper already published in another language needs the rights to republish before any tool is used. The publishers' declarations are compared in machine translation in academic writing.

One sentence of Springer's policy matters most for this guide: review your citations carefully after using AI "for copy-editing and translation", because the tool may change the citation text (Springer, n.d.). A translation tool that rewrites an author's name or a title leaves a reference that no longer matches its record.

How do you translate the references in your paper?

Do not translate them as prose. Each entry stays as its source printed it, and in most styles only the title of a non-English work gains an English translation in square brackets.

Keep the original title, add the English

APA Style gives the author, year, title and source as the work shows them and translates only the title, preferring a translation the publisher provides (Adams, 2021). Journals are less uniform. In a survey of epidemiology and public health journals by Fung (2008), of the 22 that allowed non-English citations, 11 translated the title into English followed by the original language in parentheses, one gave the original title followed by the translation in brackets, and three printed the original title only. Your journal's own instructions win; citing a non-English source gives each style's form.

The Spanish editorial by Sánchez Mendiola (2024) shows why a publisher's own translation is worth finding. Its record holds only the Spanish title, while the journal's page gives the English one. In APA:

Sánchez Mendiola, M. (2024). El reto de cruzar la brecha del idioma para publicar en inglés en educación en profesiones de la salud [The challenge of bridging the language gap to publish in English in health professions education]. Investigación en Educación Médica, 13(52), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.22201/fm.20075057e.2024.52.24654

What happens when a translator translates the list

We pasted that entry into Verify references in three forms, and the results show the risk:

• Original title with the bracketed English, no DOI: verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record."
• English title alone, no DOI, as a translator working through the list might leave it: not found, "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference." The article exists; its record holds no English title.
• English title alone, with the DOI: doubtful, with the record's Spanish title and "If your entry gives the title in another language, check that it is this work."

Your own earlier paper

Cite the original in the translation, as the ICMJE asks. If the English version is published, it will usually carry its own DOI: Crossref (2023) tells publishers to register a separate DOI for each translation and link the two records. A reader then cites the version they read.

How do you keep terms consistent across a translation?

Build a glossary before you translate, and take the English terms from the English literature you cite, not from a dictionary. Nature (n.d.) asks for jargon to be avoided and specialised terms explained, and a term invented in translation is jargon nobody else uses.

1. List every technical term, instrument name and scale in the original.
2. For each, find two or three published English papers in your field that use it, with EdCitation's Find sources, which searches about 300 million works by topic or by the claim a sentence makes.
3. Record the original term, the English term, and the paper you took it from.
4. Keep a validated instrument's published English name; never retranslate it.
5. Give the glossary to your translator or co-author, and search the finished draft for stray variants.
6. Keep the original and translated versions, since Taylor & Francis (n.d.-a) may ask to see both.

Who gets credit for translating a paper?

It depends on what else the person did. The ICMJE lists writing assistance, language editing and proofreading among contributions that alone do not earn authorship; those people are acknowledged, with their written permission (ICMJE, 2026a). Taylor & Francis (n.d.-a) names translators among those to acknowledge, with an explanation of their role, or to list as authors if appropriate, and asks for their funding to be declared.

A co-author who translated is described in CRediT, the contributor roles taxonomy published as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Its definition of "Writing – original draft" includes "substantive translation" (National Information Standards Organization, n.d.).

A worked acknowledgement:

We thank [name, affiliation] for translating the manuscript from Portuguese into English. The translation was funded by [funder, grant number]. [Name] has given written permission to be named.

What should you check before submitting a translated paper?

Work through this list in order before the English version goes to a journal.

1. Decide whether the work is published, preprinted or unpublished in its original language.
2. If published, read the original journal's copyright terms and ask its editor to agree.
3. Read the target journal's guide for authors on language, AI and prior publication.
4. Tell the new editor in the cover letter, and send the original (how to write a cover letter).
5. For a secondary publication, add the note naming the original and put "translation" in the title.
6. Check terms against your glossary and the published English literature.
7. Keep every reference as its source printed it, with bracketed English titles, and run the list through Verify references.
8. Acknowledge translators and editors, with permission, and declare what paid for them.
9. Declare any machine or AI translation as the journal asks.

How does EdCitation check a translated paper?

EdCitation is the best tool for the reference check in a translation because it looks each entry up in the publisher's record, which is how it told the Spanish title from its English translation above, while a chatbot asked to check a list writes its own answer. It leaves the translating and writing to you and your translator: it never writes or translates any part of a paper.

Verify references, free

Paste a list or upload the paper, with no account. Each reference comes back verified, doubtful or not found, retractions are flagged, and a reference it could not check is shown as "could not check", never as "not found". With the whole paper uploaded, every in-text citation is matched to the list. We also pasted the Spanish editorial, with its bracketed English and DOI, beside Amano et al. (2023): both came back verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." Fung's 2008 paper, without its DOI, was verified by title, year and first author.

Cite a source, free

Cite a source builds a reference from a DOI in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, and screens it for retraction. On three DOIs it gave the Amano et al. entry in APA with all eleven authors and the article number, as APA asks. For 10.1186/1742-7622-5-12, whose record names the author "Isaac CH", it gave "Fung, I. C. H. (2008)", reading the run-together initials. One thing needed correcting: for 10.22201/fm.20075057e.2024.52.24654 it gave the Spanish title alone in all six styles, since its record holds no English title, and EdCitation never translates one; add the journal's English title by hand.

References from a file, in Pro at $8 a month, checks every reference in an uploaded paper and matches each in-text citation to the list. See pricing for plans.

Quick questions

Can I publish a translated version of my own paper?

Yes, if the original is unpublished, as a new submission. If it is published, only as a declared secondary publication that both editors approve and that cites the original.

Is publishing a translation duplicate publication?

Not when it is declared. The ICMJE counts as duplicate a paper that overlaps with an earlier one without clear, visible reference to it; a translation that names and cites its original is secondary publication.

Do I need a professional editing service before submission?

Not at Nature or Nature Communications, which say so. PLOS ONE does not copyedit and asks authors to arrange any editing before first submission; read your target journal's instructions.

Should the translator be a co-author?

Only if they meet the journal's authorship criteria. Otherwise acknowledge them by name, with their permission, and declare who paid for the translation.

Can EdCitation translate my paper into English?

No. EdCitation checks the translated paper's references: Verify references looks each one up in the publisher's record, free, and keeps "could not check" apart from "not found".

References

• Adams, A. (2021, May 31). “Lost” in translations? Aigoo [Oh no]. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/citing-works-written-another-language
• Amano, T., Ramírez-Castañeda, V., Berdejo-Espinola, V., Borokini, I., Chowdhury, S., Golivets, M., González-Trujillo, J. D., Montaño-Centellas, F., Paudel, K., White, R. L., & Veríssimo, D. (2023). The manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science. PLOS Biology, 21(7), Article e3002184. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002184
• COPE Council. (2024). Publishing translations of previously published articles and resources. Committee on Publication Ethics. https://doi.org/10.24318/mlcziig7
• Crossref. (2023, January 18). Multi-language material and translations. Crossref documentation. https://www.crossref.org/documentation/principles-practices/best-practices/multi-language/
• Elsevier. (n.d.). Publishing ethics. https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics
• Fung, I. C. H. (2008). Citation of non-English peer review publications – some Chinese examples. Emerging Themes in Epidemiology, 5, Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-7622-5-12
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2026a). Defining the role of authors and contributors. Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2026b). Overlapping publications. Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html
• National Information Standards Organization. (n.d.). Writing – original draft. CRediT: Contributor roles taxonomy. https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/writing-original-draft/
• Nature. (n.d.). Formatting guide. https://www.nature.com/nature/for-authors/formatting-guide
• Nature Communications. (n.d.). How to submit. https://www.nature.com/ncomms/submit/how-to-submit
• PLOS ONE. (n.d.). Submission guidelines. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines
• Sánchez Mendiola, M. (2024). El reto de cruzar la brecha del idioma para publicar en inglés en educación en profesiones de la salud [The challenge of bridging the language gap to publish in English in health professions education]. Investigación en Educación Médica, 13(52), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.22201/fm.20075057e.2024.52.24654
• Springer. (n.d.). Journal policies. Springer Nature Link. https://link.springer.com/brands/springer/journal-policies
• Taylor & Francis. (n.d.-a). Defining authorship in your research paper. Author Services. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/editorial-policies/defining-authorship-research-paper/
• Taylor & Francis. (n.d.-b). Taylor & Francis editorial policies. Author Services. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/editorial-policies/
• Wiley. (2026). Best practice guidelines on research integrity and publishing ethics. https://authors.wiley.com/ethics-guidelines/index.html