1000minds surveys can now be run in more than one language, with each participant seeing the survey in the language they choose. People give more considered answers when they read questions in their own language, and for many studies, such as international or cross-cultural surveys, a single-language survey simply isn’t an option.
Until now, surveying in several languages meant setting up a separate survey for each language and combining the results afterwards. Now everyone takes the same survey, whatever their language, and all the results are in one place.
The new feature lets you invite translators to translate your survey alongside you, and it introduces shared language packs so the same groundwork doesn’t have to be done twice.
Two layers: language packs and survey translations
A translated survey is built from two layers: a language pack, which covers everything 1000minds itself says to participants, and a survey translation, which is a translation of the text you provide.
| Language pack | Survey translation | |
| What it covers | Buttons, system messages and default text | Your survey’s own content: criteria, levels, questions and instructions |
| Who creates it | Translators invited by 1000minds (perhaps at your request) | Translators invited by the survey’s administrator |
| Who benefits | Everyone running a survey in that language, now and in future | That one survey |
Because a language pack is shared, it has to be of high quality, and creating one is a bigger job than translating a single survey. We have released language packs for English and Spanish, and te reo Māori and Dutch are going through final review.
Translating your survey
As a survey administrator, you invite someone to translate your survey into another language. You can translate into several languages at once by inviting a translator for each, with one translator per language.
Because translators work inside 1000minds, they can preview the survey as they go and see each translation in context, exactly as participants will see it.
When there’s no language pack yet
You can still run a survey in a language without a pack. Your translator translates the system messages and default text the survey needs, along with your own content, but those translations stay with that one survey.
Surveys in a single language other than English
You don’t need to be running a multilingual survey to benefit. If all your participants share one language other than English, you can run the whole survey in that language, including the buttons and system messages that 1000minds shows participants.
Where a language pack exists for that language, the interface text comes from the pack, and you can still adjust any default to suit your participants. Where there isn’t one yet, the interface text your survey uses can be translated for that survey alone.
AI translation: a first draft, not a finished survey
Translators can use AI translation to produce a first draft, which saves typing and gives them something to react to. It is not a substitute for a translator.
Machine translation reliably makes mistakes, and some of them change a question’s meaning entirely. In a preferences survey, a subtly shifted level or criterion means participants are answering a different question. You still need a competent translator to work through every phrase.
Want to create a language pack?
If you’ll be running surveys in a language that doesn’t have a language pack yet, you might like to consider creating one, or having one created for you, rather than translating only your own survey.
Once it’s published, every future survey in that language starts from a complete, high-quality translation of everything 1000minds says to participants, for you and everyone else.
That makes a real difference to others who work in your language. Colleagues, collaborators, students and other organizations can run surveys in that language with a less effort, and more people get to take part in research in their own language rather than in English.
Getting started
Multilingual surveys are available now. If you’re planning a survey in a language other than English, or would like to help create a language pack, get in touch and we’ll help you set it up.
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