The article offers a detailed methodology for the study of translations. It is based on a definition of translation as a communication process within a target system, related with a similar process taking place in a source system. There is no a priori qualification of what this relation is or should be, nor of the features of each communication process taken separately. The heuristic stage receives a central place within the methodology itself: it helps the researcher to discover the most relevant features of translational communication at a given time within a specific literary system. The article includes a procedure for translation analysis, proposing a number of successive steps and checklists, and helping the researcher to describe and interrelate preliminary data, macro-structural and micro-structural features of text, and broader systemic contexts.