The Vital Role of

Terminology Management
in the Life Sciences

Definitions
Effective and efficient
What is terminology management?
terminology management
Why is it generally a good idea to can make the difference
manage terminology?
between success and
What issues make terminology manage- failure of a market launch
ment of critical importance to the life
sciences?

If my language service provider uses a

translation memory system, is there still
a need for creating a termbase?

What are the risks of not having a termi-

nology management strategy?

When is the best time to start a termi-

nology project?

Are there any relevant international

standards for terminology manage-
ment?

What kind of infrastructure do organiza-

tions need to manage terminology
effectively?

About the author

csoft

The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

DEFINITIONS

synonym
translation memory system
termbase

terminology
terminology management system

glossary
collection of words that have special
meaning in a project terminology
collection of words that have special
synonym meaning in a given subject field
word that has the same meaning as
another word terminology management
system
term type of software application that
word that has a special meaning in a enables users to efficiently collect,
given subject field process, and present terminology

termbase translation memory system

database that contains a collection of type of software application that
words that have special meaning in a enables human translators to reuse
given subject field previous translations stored in a
translation repository

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csoft

The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

What is terminology management?

Terminology management is the activity of systematically collecting, processing,
and presenting words that have special meaning in a given subject field – the em-
phasis being on the word systematically. The goal of any terminology management
effort is to ensure that the words that are most closely associated with a given
organization’s products, services, and branding are used consistently – in the source
language and in all the languages into which the various types of documents the
organization generates are translated into. Managing terminology effectivelyy in an

?
organization typically involves the following activities:

Identification of key terms
Finding the words that are considered important
enough that they should be used consistently within
and across documents is not an easy task. If the
organization has a team of terminology stakeholders
(e.g. representatives from product development,
technical communication, marketing communication,
and legal service groups) that decides on terminology
before development and authoring begins, the
challenge is to reach consensus among the diverging
interests.
If no terminology circle has been instituted, which is
the most typical scenario in the business world today,
and the team members within the various organiza-
tional groups have already generated a wide variety of
documents (e.g. specifications, software, manuals,
regulatory documents, and marketing collateral), it
may be difficult to collect all relevant documents and
the sheer volume of text may require automated
extraction of terminology and subsequent manual
clean-up.
Development of entries
Once the question of which terms should go into a
glossary has been resolved, the next issue is: How
much supporting information is needed. There is
much debate whether it makes good business sense
to collect anything other than simple term lists. ISO
12620 specifies almost 200 possible data categories
for a terminological entry, and yet ISO 12616 lists only
three of those as mandatory, i.e. term, source, and date.
For many organizations, the most practical solution
will probably be a data model that involves less than
two dozen data categories.
In all major terminology standards, definitions are an
optional data category. Even though writing defini-
tions can easily be the most time-consuming and
expensive part of developing an entry, a definition is
typically the most valuable part of an entry, especially
if the organization uses the terminology database as
the universal knowledge base that it is. It’s the defini-
tion that helps an engineer pick the correct term from
a range of options, and it’s the definition that lets a
new employee understand an unfamiliar concept
better than any other information in an entry. A quick
note for those who struggle with definition writing: A
terminological definition is not the same as an
encyclopedic entry. A good terminological definition
is a brief, to-the-point statement that should not be
longer than one sentence.
Example:
pacemaker
implantable medical device for treating heart arrhyth-
mias

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The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

Review and approval of glossaries be used (preferred terms) and which shouldn’t
and termbases (deprecated terms). In the case of translated glossaries,
the review should be performed by a subject matter
The importance of having subject matter experts expert who works in the country where the target
evaluate monolingual and multilingual terminology language into which the glossary was translated into.
collections prior to their publication and use cannot be
overemphasized. Glossaries and termbases are norma- Terminology maintenance
tive documents that will ideally be used by all commu-
The only constant in business is change, and this
nicators within an organization, as well as its external
adage certainly applies to terminology management.
vendors of communication services such as PR,
As both technology and language are constantly
marketing, advertising, and translation agencies. It is
evolving, so should glossaries and termbases. In other
therefore imperative that a person who is intimately
words: In order to provide internal and external
familiar with both the domain the terminological
communicators with the relevant and up-to-date
collection covers and the organization that sponsors
terminology, the terminology repositories need not
the terminology project, signs off on each entry.
only be continuously expanded with new and emerg-
Reviewers typically focus on the accuracy of defini-
ing terms but existing terms must be evaluated for
tions and decide which terms are desirable and should
validity on a regular basis.

Why is it generally a good idea

to manage terminology?
Consistent corporate
communication
Terminology management enables organizations of
any size to use the same terms consistently within and
across the communication types that accompany a
product or service. Typical communication types
include specifications, drawings, user interface/human
factors data, software strings, help systems, technical
documentation, marketing materials, documents for
regulatory submission, etc. As multiple authors
typically contribute to these communications, termi-
nology management is the most efficient solution for
ensuring that the organization speaks with one voice.
Streamlined authoring,
editing, and translation
Having a comprehensive, project-specific termbase
available at the outset of a project frees developers,
writers – and ultimately, translators - from the tedious
task of researching terms on their own and reduces Why is it generally a good
the danger of multiple communicators accidentally
idea to manage terminology?
coining multiple terms for the same feature, which
either goes undetected and causes confusion for the
user, or causes unnecessary expense and delays for
terminology harmonization throughout the product
lifecycle.

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The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

What issues make terminology management

of critical importance to the life sciences?

User requirements Regulatory requirements

One of the defining characteristics of the life science
industries is that the products and services these
organizations offer typically have an immediate
impact on the life and well-being of people who are
being treated with these products and services. This
being the case, any communication with the end user,
regardless if they are a clinician or a patient, must be
as comprehensible as possible to ensure the desired
effect of a product or service. This means not only that
labeling and instructions for use must be terminologi-
cally consistent, it also means that the most common
and most easily understood terms are being used,
which necessitates a conscientious effort at identify-
ing, collecting, and publishing these terms.
The life sciences being a regulated industry, organiza-
tions operating in this field are subject to government
oversight. This means, for instance, that a wide variety
of documents such as clinical trials reports, user
manuals, and product labeling have to be submitted
to regulatory bodies for review. One important aspect
of the formal quality of these submissions is the
consistent use of correct terminology within any given
document and across all documents in a submission
package. Typically many different, geographically
distributed authors contribute to these submissions,
and considering the endless opportunities for intro-
ducing synonyms and variants into these documents,
terminology management is a mandatory part of any
well-planned submission process.

If my language service provider uses

a translation memory system,
is there still a need for creating a termbase?

Integrated terminology management

Many language service providers use a translation memory system for storing and reusing translations.
While it is true that a translation memory makes it possible to retrieve not only translated sentences but also
sub-sentential elements such as terminology, this so-called concordance feature is no substitute for creating a
termbase. Here is why: In the absence of a termbase, translation memories typically contain synonyms, i.e. multiple
translations,abbreviated forms and variants of the same term,making it very difficult,if not impos-
sible, for teams of translation professionals to consistently pick the same translated term. Also, using the
concordance function every time a term occurs in a text to be translated is very time
consuming and results in low productivity. And that’s the best
case scenario where the term has actually been translated
before: For new terminology, the translation
memory system is no help at all.

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csoft

The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

When is the best time to start

a terminology project?
Effective terminology management starts long before the first source document in
a global campaign is even written. The terminology circle should decide on new
terms for features and functions at the specification stage. Starting terminology
management later, e.g. by extracting terms from existing documents, means by
necessity changes. And changes are always expensive and time-consuming: A
study conducted in the automobile industry indicates that a terminology change at
the maintenance stage (i.e. after publication) is 200 times more expensive than a
change at the product data stage (i.e. at the specification stage).

Product Data

Document Design
Maintenance
Authoring

Editing

Translation
Acceptance
Translation
200 Maintenance
100 Acceptance

50
Product Data

1
20
Document Design
5 10
Authoring Editing

Figure 1: The rising cost of changing terminology in the document lifecycle ( Source: Schütz, MULTIDOC Project )

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csoft
The Vital Role of Terminology Management
in the Life Sciences
What are the risks of not having
a terminology management strategy?
RISKS
Us
Usability issues
Without tools and process in place that ensure consistent
use of approved terms by each member of the various
teams that contribute material for external communication
in the course of a launch of a product or service, differences
between the terms that appear in the product or are part of
the service and the documents that accompany those
products and services are inevitable. Discrepancies
between what users see while interacting with a product or
service and what these users find in user assistance texts
such as online help, tutorials, or user documentation can
have a negative impact on the experience a user has with a
product or service. This type of problem should be of
particular concern to vendors operating in the life sciences
space, as any usability issue may have serious conse-
quences. But even if no patient is impacted, terminological
inconsistencies not only reflect poorly on otherwise
well-designed products or services, they also cause
unnecessary and costly calls to support and customer
service centers.
Lost revenue
While it is certainly true that managing terminology costs
money, not managing terminology can cost a lot more.
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Effective and efficient terminology management can make the
difference between success and failure of a market launch
Lost reven
ue
t y i s s u e s
a b i l i
Consider this simple fact: With project-specific glossaries in
place, all communicators including developers, writers,
translators use only approved terms – and compliance with
the corporate terminology can be checked using
automated tools. Without glossaries, the product and every
document associated with it will have to be checked
manually for consistency with all other documents. Because
of the complexity of the task, there is a good chance that
not every inconsistency will be discovered – after all, who
has the bandwidth to read all documents involved in the
launch of a product or service – and fixing those inconsis-
tencies that are found is expensive.
But having to correct consistency into existing documents,
and the detrimental effect this has on a project’s budget
and release schedule, is not the worst-case scenario. Much
worse would be a case where a launch has to be
postponed because of delays in the regulatory approval
process caused by incorrect and/or inconsistent terminol-
ogy in the submission documents. The author is familiar
with one case where a submission was rejected outright
due to translation and terminology issues, which resulted in
the loss of millions of dollars of revenue.
5
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The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

Are there any relevant international

standards for terminology management?
Yes, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has created a number of
standards that outline best practices in terminology management. Below are:

ISO 704:2000 ISO 1087-1:2000

Terminology work – Principles and methods Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1:
This 38-page document is an excellent introductory Theory and application
text to terminology management, including guide- This is another overview text that describes the major
lines for writing definitions. concepts used in terminology management.

ISO 12616:2002 ISO 12620:1999

Translation – oriented terminography
This document provides information on managing
terminology specifically for translation environments.
Computer applications in terminology –
Data categories
This document specifies the data categories that
should be used to ensure easy data exchange
between systems that store and process terminology.

In addition to these standards on terminology management practice, ISO publishes

literally hundreds of standards that contain monolingual and multilingual glossaries, e.g.

ISO 14644-6:2007 ISO 8600-6:2005 ISO 15225:2000

Cleanrooms and associ- Optics and photonics -- Nomenclature -- Specifica-
ated controlled environ- Medical endoscopes and tion for a nomenclature
ments -- Part 6: Vocabu- endotherapy devices -- system for medical devices
lary Part 6: Vocabulary for the purpose of regula-
tory data exchange

Also, many national standardization bodies as well as governmental and non-

governmental organizations publish extensive domain-specific glossaries that can
help a terminology management effort to get off to a fast start.

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csoft

The Vital Role of Terminology Management Effective and efficient terminology management can make the

in the Life Sciences difference between success and failure of a market launch

What kind of infrastructure do organizations

need to manage terminology effectively?
In-house model
A number of organizations have built up sophisticated internal terminology management capabilities. Medtronic
is a good example of a life science company that has spent well above a million dollars on hiring dedicated
terminologists, developing custom software, and translating terminology internally. For large, multibillion-dollar
organizations that have their own local resources in all the markets they serve, this model makes perfect sense.

Strategy:
Outsourcing model
Make terminology management part of the
For smaller organizations that have less experience overall launch plan for a product or service.
in the area of globalization and yet wish to jump-
start a terminology management effort, it may Timing:
make more sense to use an external vendor for Initiate the terminology development effort at
most of the terminology tasks. In an outsourced the earliest possible time.
scenario, the organization sponsoring a terminol-
ogy project provides two resources:
a) During the development of a glossary, the Allocation:
organization makes its subject matter experts Plan for subject matter experts to be available
available to the vendor for tasks such as ranking of during key phases of a terminology project.
synonyms (e.g. preferred, admitted, deprecated/do
not use) or writing/reviewing definitions; and
b) After a given glossary is complete, the organiza- Selection:
tion provides a means for sharing that information, Use a language service provider with experience
typically a searchable site on the organization’s in terminology management.
intranet.

Here are the five key factors that determine the Hand-offs:
effectiveness of an outsourced terminology Include the finished glossary as a resource to be
management project: used by all internal and external contributors to a
launch.

About the author

Uwe Muegge is the Director of MedL10N, the life science division of
CSOFT. Uwe has more than 15 years experience in the translation
and localization field. Before joining CSOFT, he served as the Corpo-
rate Terminologist at Medtronic, the world’s largest manufacturer of
medical technology. Uwe is currently a member of the technical
committee for terminology at the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) and teaches graduate courses in Terminology
Management at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Uwe
Muegge can be reached at +1 ( 952 ) 955 - 7708 or uwe.muegge @
medl10n.com.
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