Babel | Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción
Babel is a scholarly journal designed primarily for translators, interpreters and terminologists (T&I), yet of interest also for non-specialists concerned with current issues and events in the field.
The scope of Babel is intentional and embraces a multitude of disciplines built on the following pillars: T&I theory, practice, pedagogy, technology, history, sociology, and terminology management. Another important segment of this journal includes articles on the development and evolution of the T&I professions: new disciplines, growth, recognition, Codes of Ethics, protection, and prospects.
The creation of Babel was proposed on the initiative of Pierre-François Caillé, founding president of the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT) and approved by the first FIT Congress of 1954 in Paris. Babel continues to be published for FIT and each issue contains a section dedicated to THE LIFE OF FIT.
Articles for Babel are normally published in English or French but we also accept articles in Arabic, Chinese, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
Babel is published for the International Federation of Translators (FIT).
Babel publishes its articles Online First.
Latest articles
28 October 2024
19 July 2024
28 May 2024
13 May 2024
1 May 2024
29 April 2024
23 April 2024
8 April 2024
5 April 2024
2 April 2024
11 March 2024
12 February 2024
19 January 2024
9 January 2024
21 December 2023
15 December 2023
12 December 2023
11 December 2023
8 December 2023
5 December 2023
4 December 2023
28 November 2023
24 November 2023
23 November 2023
21 November 2023
20 November 2023
20 October 2023
10 October 2023
5 October 2023
2 October 2023
26 September 2023
22 September 2023
18 September 2023
31 July 2023
25 July 2023
24 July 2023
6 July 2023
3 July 2023
29 June 2023
15 June 2023
12 June 2023
9 June 2023
8 June 2023
7 June 2023
2 June 2023
16 May 2023
15 May 2023
Volumes and issues
Online-first articlesVolume 70 (2024)
Volume 69 (2023)
Volume 68 (2022)
Volume 67 (2021)
Volume 66 (2020)
Volume 65 (2019)
Volume 64 (2018)
Volume 63 (2017)
Volume 62 (2016)
Volume 61 (2015)
Volume 60 (2014)
Volume 59 (2013)
Volume 58 (2012)
Volume 57 (2011)
Volume 56 (2010)
Volume 55 (2009)
Volume 54 (2008)
Volume 53 (2007)
Volume 52 (2006)
Volume 51 (2005)
Volume 50 (2004)
Volume 49 (2003)
Volume 48 (2002)
Volume 47 (2001)
Volume 46 (2000)
Volume 45 (1999)
Volume 44 (1998)
Volume 43 (1997)
Volume 42 (1996)
Volume 41 (1995)
Volume 40 (1994)
Volume 39 (1993)
Volume 38 (1992)
Volume 37 (1991)
Volume 36 (1990)
Volume 35 (1989)
Volume 34 (1988)
Volume 33 (1987)
Volume 32 (1986)
Volume 31 (1985)
Volume 30 (1984)
Volume 29 (1983)
Volume 28 (1982)
Volume 27 (1981)
Volume 26 (1980)
Volume 25 (1979)
Volume 24 (1978)
Volume 23 (1977)
Volume 22 (1976)
Volume 21 (1975)
Volume 20 (1974)
Volume 19 (1973)
Volume 18 (1972)
Volume 17 (1971)
Volume 16 (1970)
Volume 15 (1969)
Volume 14 (1968)
Volume 13 (1967)
Volume 12 (1966)
Volume 11 (1965)
Volume 10 (1964)
Volume 9 (1963)
Volume 8 (1962)
Volume 7 (1961)
Volume 6 (1960)
Volume 5 (1959)
Volume 4 (1958)
Volume 3 (1957)
Volume 2 (1956)
Volume 1 (1955)
Board
Subscription Info
General information about our electronic journals.
Subscription rates
All prices for print + online include postage/handling.
Online-only | Print + online | ||
---|---|---|---|
Volume 71 (2025): 6 issues; ca. 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
|
Volume 70 (2024): 6 issues; ca. 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Individuals may apply for a special online-only subscription rate of EUR
Private subscriptions are for personal use only, and must be pre-paid and ordered directly from the publisher.
Available back-volumes
Online-only | Print + online | ||
---|---|---|---|
Complete backset (Vols. 1‒69; 1955‒2023) |
287 issues; 24,105 pp. |
EUR 10,571.00 | EUR 9,329.00 |
Volume 69 (2023) | 6 issues; 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volumes 67‒68 (2021‒2022) | 6 issues; avg. 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 66 (2020) | 6 issues; 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 65 (2019) | 6 issues; 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 64 (2018) | 6 issues; 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 63 (2017) | 6 issues; 900 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 62 (2016) | 4 issues; 600 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 61 (2015) | 4 issues; 600 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 60 (2014) | 4 issues; 500 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volume 59 (2013) | 4 issues; 500 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volumes 57‒58 (2011‒2012) | 4 issues; avg. 500 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volumes 43‒56 (1997‒2010) | 4 issues; avg. 386 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volumes 25‒42 (1979‒1996) | 4 issues; avg. 250 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volumes 19‒24 (1973‒1978) | 4 issues; avg. 200 pp. | EUR |
EUR |
Volumes 2‒18 (1956‒1972) | 4 issues; avg. 200 pp. | EUR |
Not available |
Volume 1 (1955) | 1 issue; 100 pp. | EUR |
Not available |
Guidelines
Guidelines
Submissions should be made through Babel’s Editorial Manager. If you are not able to submit online, or for any other editorial correspondence, please contact the Managing Editor by e-mail: babel.ijtgmail.com
Final manuscripts should be between 5,000 and 9,000 words (including notes and references) and should be submitted in both MS WORD and PDF formats with embedded fonts, showing all special characters as they will be printed. All pages should be numbered consecutively. Manuscripts must be completely anonymized. Do not include author’ or funding information in manuscripts. You can provide this information in the “Manuscript Data” step during the submission process of in Editorial Manager. The abstract (150–200 words) and keywords, preferably in both English and French, must also be submitted in the “Manuscript Data” step of the submission process in Editorial Manager. Editors can assist with abstracts in French upon request. Manuscripts should preferably be written in English or French. If you are not a native speaker, it is strongly advisable to have your text proofread by a native speaker before submission. Articles in Arabic, Chinese, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish will also be considered. Spelling in English should be in either British or American English consistently. Authors are responsible for complying with copyright laws when quoting or reproducing material. Copyright of articles published in Babel is held by FIT. In the interest of production efficiency and producing text of the highest quality and consistency, we urge you to write your manuscript in strict adherence to the following guidelines. It is essential that references be formatted as specified in these guidelines, as they cannot be formatted automatically. This book series uses author-date style as described in the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.
Electronic files
Electronic files: Please be sure to supply all text and graphic files of the final version of the manuscript. Please delete all personal comments so that they cannot mistakenly be typeset, and check that all files are readable.
Software: Files in Word are preferred, but our typesetters can convert almost anything. If for some reason a format other than the one specified is required, we will contact you.
Graphic files: Please provide figures and plates as Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) or Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) conversions in addition to the source files. Please ensure resolution is suitable for print media, preferably 300 dpi.
Lay-out
Our typesetters will do the final formatting of your document. However, some of the text enhancements cannot be done automatically, so we kindly ask that you carefully follow the following style.
Use a minimum of page settings, namely 12 pt. Times New Roman, double line spacing, 1-inch margins. The only relevant codes are those pertaining to font enhancement (italics, bold, caps, small caps, etc.), punctuation, and reference format. Whatever formatting or style conventions you use, please be consistent.
Do not use right-hand justification or automatic hyphenation.
Use Unicode fonts for special characters or supply the required TrueType or PostScript Type 1 fonts. For text that includes examples or fragments in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, this is required. Otherwise, you should clearly mark in red on the manuscript any symbols or visual aspects that you cannot produce in electronic form. If a symbol occurs frequently, you may use an alternative symbol (e.g., # $ %) and include a list of these symbols with their correct transcription.
Tables, figures and plates
- Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively and have concise headings (240 characters maximum).
- All figures and tables should be referenced in the text, e.g., (see Figure 5). Please do not use relative references such as “see the table below”, or “in this table: ...”.
- If the table or figure is not included in the text file, please indicate the preferred position of the table or figure in the text by adding a line “ Insert here (file name)” at the appropriate position. The figure will be placed either at the beginning or at the end of the page where it is mentioned or on the following page. The book will be printed in black and white. Please make sure that the illustrations are still meaningful even if they are printed in black and white.
- All tables, plates, and figures must fit within the following text area, either portrait or landscape: 12 cm x 20 cm at 8 pt. minimum.
- Notes in tables and figures should not be normal endnotes. Use a table note or figure note as in the following example. Standard note indicators in tables are *, **, †, ‡. The note itself is then inserted directly below the table/ illustration.
- Limit shading in tables to a functional minimum and only to individual cells, not entire rows or columns.
Running heads
Please do not use headings in your article.
Emphasis and foreign words
Use italics for foreign words, highlighting, and emphasis. Bold should be used only for emphasis within italics and for headings. Please refrain from using FULL CAPS (except for focal stress and abbreviations) and underlining (except for emphasis within examples, as an alternative to boldface).
Transliteration
Please transliterate all examples from languages that use a non-Latin script into English, using the appropriate transliteration system (ISO or LOC).
Chapters and headings
Chapters or articles should be headed in capital letters and sensibly divided into numbered sections and, if necessary, subsections. Please indicate the hierarchy of subheadings as follows:
Heading A = bold, one line space above, text on new line without indentation.
Heading B = italics, one line space above, text on new line without indentation.
Heading C = italics, one line space above, text in new line
without indent.
Heading D = italics, one line space above, scrolling text.
Quotations
Text citations in the main text should be enclosed in double quotation marks. Quotations longer than 3 lines should have a blank line above and below and a left indent, without quotation marks and with the appropriate reference to the source.
Listings: Should not be indented. If numbered, please number as follows:
1. ..................... or a. .......................
2. ..................... or b. .......................
Listings that continue with the main text should be numbered in parentheses: (1).............., (2)............., etc.
Examples and glosses
Examples should be numbered with Arabic numerals (1,2,3, etc.) in parentheses.
Examples in languages other than the language in which your article is written should be given in italics with an approximate translation. Glosses may be inserted between the original and the translation. This interlinear gloss does not receive punctuation or highlighting. For abbreviations in the interlinear gloss, you may use CAPS or SMALL CAPS, which will be converted to small caps by our typesetters during final formatting.
Please note that lines 1 and 2 are strung together by using spaces: It is important that the number of elements in lines 1 and 2 matches. If two words in the example match a word in the gloss, put a full stop to join the two words (2a). Hyphens are used to separate morphemes (1, 2b).
Each next level in the example gets an indent/tab.
(1) Kare wa besutoseraa o takusan kaite-iru.
he TOP best-seller ACC many write-PERF
“He has written many best-sellers.’”
(2) a. Jan houdt van Marie.
Jan loves Marie
“Jan loves Marie.”
b. Ed en Floor gaan samen-wonen.
Ed and Floor go together-live.INF
“Ed and Floor are going to live together.”
Notes
Notes should be kept to a minimum. Note indicators in the text should appear at the end of sentences and follow punctuation marks.
Funding information
Funding information should be provided if funding was received through a grant for the research that is discussed in the article, including funder name and grant number, in a separate section called "Funding information" before (an Acknowledgment section and) the References.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments (other than funding information, see above) should be added in a separate, unnumbered section entitled "Acknowledgments", placed before the References.
References
It is essential that the references are formatted to the specifications given in these guidelines, as these cannot be formatted automatically. This book series uses the ‘Author-Date’ style as described in the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.
References in the text: These should be as precise as possible, giving page references where necessary; for example (Clahsen 1991, 252) or: as in Brown et al. (1991, 252). All references in the text should appear in the references section.
References section: References should be listed first alphabetically and then chronologically. The section should include all (and only!) references that are actually mentioned in the text.
A note on capitalization in titles.
For titles in English, CMS uses headline-style capitalization. In titles and subtitles, capitalize the first and last words, and all other major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, some conjunctions). Do not capitalize articles; prepositions
(unless used adverbially or adjectivally, or as part of a Latin expression used adverbially or adjectivally); the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor; to as part of an infinitive; as in any grammatical function; parts of proper names that would be
lower case in normal text; the second part of a species name. For more details and examples, consult the Chicago Manual of Style. For any other languages, and English translations of titles given in square brackets, CMS uses sentence-style capitalization:
capitalization as in normal prose, i.e., the first word in the title, the subtitle, and any proper names or other words normally given initial capitals in the language in question.
Examples
Book:
- English
Görlach, Manfred. 2003. English Words Abroad. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Spear, Norman E., and Ralph R. Miller, eds. 1981. Information Processing in Animals: Memory Mechanisms. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Non-English Latin-Script
Holz-Mänttäri, Justa. 1984.Translatorisches Handeln. Theorie und Methode [Translation action: Theory and method]. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
- Non-Latin-Script
Sun, Yifeng . 2016. Wenhua fanyi 文化翻譯 [Cultural translation] . Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.
- Intext citations
(Görlach 2003
)
(Spear and Miller 1981)
(Holz-Mänttäri 1984, 33)
(Sun 2016, 10–33)
Journal article:
- English
Rayson, Paul, Geoffrey N. Leech, and Mary Hodges. 1997. “Social Differentiation in the Use of English Vocabulary: Some Analyses of the Conversational Component of the British National Corpus.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 2 (1): 120–132.
Van Dijk, Teun A. 1995. “Discourse, Opinions and Ideologies.” Current Issues in Language and Society 2 (2): 115 – 145. doi.org/10.1080/13520529509615438 .
- Non-English Latin-Script
Claes, Jeroen, and Luis A. Ortiz López. 2011. “Restricciones pragmáticas y sociales en la expresión de futuridad en el español de Puerto Rico” [Pragmatic and social restrictions in the expression of the future in Puerto Rican Spanish]. Spanish in Context 8: 50–72.
- Non-Latin-Script
Sun, Yifeng 孫藝風 . 2019. “Fanyi yanjiu yu shijie wenxue” 翻譯研究與世界文學 [Translation studies and world literature]. Zhongguo fanyi 中國翻譯 [Chinese translators journal] 40 (1): 5 – 18.
- Intext citations
(Rayson,
Leech and Hoges 1997, 124–130)
(Claes and López 2011)
(Sun 2019, 12)
Book chapter:
- In a single-volume work
Adams, Clare A., and Anthony Dickinson. 1981. “Actions and Habits: Variation in Associative Representation during Instrumental Learning.” In Information Processing in Animals: Memory Mechanisms, edited by Norman E. Spear and Ralph R. Miller, 143–186. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- In a multi-volume work
van Doorslaer, Luc. 2010. “Journalism and Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, vol. 1, 180–184. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Intext citations
(Adams
and Dickinson 1981, 143–186)
(van Doorslaer 2010, 180–184)
Translation:
Pu, Songlin. 2006. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, translated by John Minford. London: Penguin Classics.
Minford, John, trans. 2006. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio , by Pu Songlin. London: Penguin Classics.- Intext citations
(Pu
2006, 67)
(Minford 2006, 120–123)
Multivolume works:
- Entire collection
Gambier, Yves, and Luc van Doorslaer. 2014. Handbook of Translation Studies. 4 vols. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Individual volume
Gambier, Yves, and Luc van Doorslaer. 2014. Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 4. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Intext citations
(Gambier and van Doorslaer 2014)
Newspaper and magazine articles:
Owen, Stephen.1990. “What Is World Poetry? The Anxiety of Global Influence.” New Republic, 19 November 1990, 28–32.
Goldblatt, Howard. “My Hero: Mo Yan.” Guardian, 12 October 2012.
- Intext citations
(Owen 1990, 28–32)
(Goldblatt 2012)
(Lovell 2012)
Thesis or dissertation:
Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. 2013. “King Lear and Its Folktale Analogue.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago.
- Intext citations
(Rutz 2013, 56–57)
Website:
Lovell, Julia. 2012. “Mo Yan’s Creative Space.” New York Times, 15 October 2012. Accessed 10 November 2020. www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/opinion/mo-yans-creative-space.html .
Adam, Joshua V. 2018. “Translation Without Theory.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 7 October 2018. Accessed 10 November 2020. lareviewofbooks.org/article/translation-without-theory .
- Intext citations
(Lovell 2012)
(Adam 2018)
Appendices
Appendices should follow the References section.
Additional Style Guidelines
Please use in-text citations, numbered endnotes, and works cited.
1. Do not justify the right margin of your manuscript or the electronic version on disk. Leave a ragged right margin.
2. Double-space everything, including quotations and footnotes.
3. Observe the following rules of punctuation:
- Use an en dash instead of a hyphen to denote a span or range of page numbers, dates, or times in citations and reference entries.
- Use the Oxford comma, i.e., place a comma before “and” or “or” in a series of 3 items (e.g., lexis, morphology, and syntax).
- Commas to set off a preceding dependent clause of a complex sentence or to separate a compound sentence.
- Use curly quotes and curly apostrophes.
- Double quotation marks to enclose a quotation and single quotation marks to indicate a quotation within a quotation.
- End quotation marks after punctuation (e.g., “to done.”).
- Comma after i.e. and e.g.
- Do not put punctuation in lists.
4. Miscellaneous
- Mark a new paragraph with a single tab.
- Set off each introductory sentence of five words or more with a comma, e.g., “Toward the end of World War II,...”
- Dates should be in the form “15 December 1998.”
- Decades should be written in the form “the 1980s.”
- Spell out centuries, e.g., “eighteenth century.”
- Give an author's full name the first time it is mentioned in your text, e.g., “Anne Ross...”; for all subsequent references in the text should use only the last name.
- Use “and” instead of “&”, and “see” in instead of “cf.”.
- Use minimal capitalization, e.g., “translation studies”, “the Roman Catholic Church”;
- Use minimal hyphenation, e.g., “postcolonial.”
- Possessives of names ending in “s” should take the form “Yeats’s.”
- Please avoid inappropriately gendered language and find phrases that avoid awkward forms such as "his/her" whenever possible. Render dashes as en-dash with a space before and after, e.g., "despite the difficulties-however great." Provide DOI whenever possible
Proofing procedure
The first author of an article will receive a PDF of the first proofs of the article and will be asked to return the corrections to the journal editors within 7 days of receipt. Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for free from www.adobe.com and will allow you to read and print the file. Please limit corrections to the essentials. The editor has the discretion not to make major text changes or to charge the author. If it is absolutely necessary to change larger sections of text (i.e., more than a few words), it is best to submit the changes electronically (with identical hard copy).
Submission
Babel invites submissions.
Please consult these guidelines before submitting your paper.
Authors are responsible for observing the laws of copyright when quoting or reproducing material. The copyright of articles published in Babel is held by the FIT.
Book reviews are solicited in principle. To propose a book for review, contact our Managing Editor by e-mail at babel.ijtgmail.com. Book reviews should be within 1,000 words and focus on critical commentary rather than chapter summaries.
Submissions should be made through Babel’s online submission portal. If you are not able to submit online, or for any other editorial correspondence, please contact the Managing Editor by e-mail: babel.ijtgmail.com
Ethics
John Benjamins journals are committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices.
Authors and reviewers are kindly requested to read this Ethics Statement .
Please also note the guidance on the use of (generative) AI in the statement.
Rights and Permissions
Authors must ensure that they have permission to use any third-party material in their contribution; the permission should include perpetual (not time-limited) world-wide distribution in print and electronic format.
For information on authors' rights, please consult the rights information page.
Open Access
Articles accepted for this journal can be made Open Access through payment of an Article Publication Charge (APC) of EUR 1800 (excl. tax). To arrange this, please contact openaccessbenjamins.nl once your paper has been accepted for publication. More information can be found on the publisher's Open Access Policy page.
Corresponding authors from institutions with which John Benjamins has a Read & Publish arrangement can publish Open Access without paying a fee. Please consult this list of institutions for up-to-date information on which articles qualify.
For information about permission to post a version of your article online or in an institutional repository ('green' open access or self-archiving), please consult the rights information page.
If the article is not (to be made) Open Access, there is no fee for the author to publish in this journal.
Archiving
John Benjamins Publishing Company has an agreement in place with Portico for the archiving of all its online journals and e-books.