ISO 18587 on MT post-editing gaining traction

Newly published ISO standard 18587, on post-editing machine translation, is already attracting interest among LSPs and clients alike.

Within a couple of weeks of the standard’s publication, the ATC received enquiries from LSPs as far away as the US, a fact not lost on ATC’s lead on standards, Raisa McNab.

‘’It seems that clients are also already aware of it, which just goes to show how much of an impact machine translation has within the translation industry today, and how welcome an ISO standard on MT post-editing is to many,” she said.

ISO 18587 regulates the post-editing of content processed by machine translation systems and establishes competences and qualifications that post-editors must have. The standard is intended for use by post-editors, translation service providers and their clients.

Livia Florensa, CEO of Barcelona-based translation company, CPSL, was the original architect of 18587. As the standard’s ISO Project Leader at ISO, she was also responsible for coordinating its development, aided by comments from ISO member countries including the ATC’s ISO standards Commenting Group, lead by the Association’s ISO expert Chris Cox.

“It was necessary to create a specific standard for post-editing because it was explicitly left out of the ISO 17100, which provides requirements for translation services, but it was a complicated process, taking four years to reach the stage of final publication,” Livia explained.

Commenting on the standard in its different development stages via the UK’s ISO representation, Livia, who will remain on ISO’s Technical Committee as an expert member working on the standards relating to translation and interpreting, said;

“It’s been a long but interesting process and it has been extremely rewarding to tackle the issue of finding the best process to follow during post-editing, to ensure quality translations that meet the client’s expectations. At the same time, it has allowed me the opportunity to foster the creation of a standard that affects our industry.”

ATC’s Raisa McNab said it was still early days for the 18587, but given the traction it’s gaining, it would be incorporated into the service offering of the ATC’s new ISO certification service being launched at the Language Industry Summit in London, 21-22 September.

‘’We will be offering certification services to ISO 9001 and the translation industry standard ISO 17100, but as there won’t be very many certification bodies offering auditing and certification to ISO 18587, we are very keen on introducing 18587 into the mix as soon as possible,” she said.

Get the standard here.