PRISMA Translations Policy

The purpose of our translation policy is to ensure that the translation of any PRISMA document (i.e., PRISMA statement, PRISMA explanatory paper, PRISMA checklist, PRISMA flow diagram or any of these documents for a PRISMA extension) accurately reflects the collaborative expertise of the PRISMA Group. The PRISMA Group only fully endorses "official" translations of the PRISMA documents which have followed our translation policy.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about our translation policy and process. If you are in agreement with the below policy and would like to proceed with translation, please contact us to start this process.

Official PRISMA translations must meet the following criteria:

• Developed using the most up-to-date version of the PRISMA document;

• Developed in collaboration with the PRISMA Group;

• Follows the steps of translation described below;

• If the translation is published, original PRISMA authors will maintain primary authorship and translators will follow the authorship policy of the journal.

Steps of PRISMA Translation

Step 1: Establish contact with PRISMA Group (prismastatement@gmail.com) and select which PRISMA document you wish to translate: PRISMA statement, PRISMA explanatory paper, PRISMA checklist, PRISMA flow diagram or any of these documents for a PRISMA extension.

Step 2: Complete a draft of the translation of the selected PRISMA document (use most up-to-date document found on PRISMA website).

Step 3: Have a back-translation of the draft translation carried out by an independent source. The person who back-translates the translated draft should not be involved with the translation in the first place and should be familiar with scientific language in both English and the selected language. If you do not know someone is able to carry out this task, please let us know and we will try to assist you in finding someone to do this.

Step 4: Send back-translated PRISMA documents to the PRISMA group for review. We will make note of any differences between the back-translation and the original English publication of PRISMA and send you this feedback. Please note: it is important that the translation be as close to the original English version as possible since the wording of the document was carefully and purposefully selected by the PRISMA Group based on a consensus process.

Step 5: If necessary, revise translated document based on feedback from the PRISMA Group. This step may entail one or more iterations to ensure that wording of the translation is as accurate as possible.

Step 6: Disseminate the completed translation. While the translation will be posted to the PRISMA website for users of the selected language to access freely, we encourage translators to seek publication of their translation in an open-access journal. While PRISMA authors will retain primary authorship on the translated document, translators will be listed in the acknowledgements section of the article as well as on a secondary author byline where permitted by journals (i.e. under the author line, state “Translated by xxx”). Translators are encouraged to write an accompanying editorial which may be done in collaboration with one or more of the authors of the original PRISMA document, if desired. All official translations of PRISMA will be announced and posted on the PRISMA website.