Translation and interpreting research in Saudi Arabia: a bibliometric analysis (1990–2019)

ABSTRACT

The first academic translation centre in Saudi Arabia was established in 1990 by King Saud University; since then, translation has been developing as a discipline in its own right. Despite the considerable attention given to bibliometric study of translation and interpreting (T&I) research in Translation Studies, the available literature to date has not explored the development of T&I journal articles in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to lay the groundwork for examining 30 years of Saudi T&I research activities by analysing the productivity of published journal articles between 1990 and 2019, prior to the establishment of The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission (LPT) as a regulating body. The paper divides the examined period into three phases: early years (1990-1999), advances in academia (2000-2009) and advances in the industry (2010-2019). Drawing on bibliometric parameters of productivity, the dataset includes 180 journal articles collected primarily from King Fahad National Library and Scopus as well as three Arabic secondary sources. The findings suggest a significant increase of published articles in the third decade (2010-2019), a dominance of pedagogy-related studies during the three phases and shared patterns with contextual factors in Saudi Arabia; including the expansion of translation departments at universities and international scholarships. 

KEYWORDS:

• Bibliometrics
• higher education
• period-specific themes
• Saudi Arabia
• T&I research

Acknowledgments

The researcher has received funding from the Translation Research Grants Program by The Literature, Publishing & Translation Commission (LPT) at The Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia for conducting this research on translation on November 24, 2022. The author confirms that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This period is also known as the ‘Seventh Development Plan’, according to the Ministry of Economy and Planning, see: https://www.mep.gov.sa/en/AdditionalDocuments/PlansEN/8th/Eighth%20Development%20Plan%20-%20Index.pdf [Last accessed 10 September 2022].

2. According to the database of King Fahad Library (KFNL).

3. For instance, Taibah University (TU) established its translation department in 2010 and the Saudi Electronic University (SEU) later in 2014.

4. In addition to the 18 Saudi academic institutions in Figure 3, there are 20 other institutions that are not included in the figure to which they are eliminated due to the limitation of space in this paper. Institutions that contributed fewer than three journal articles to the dataset are listed in the appendix.

5. Due to the limitation of space, foreign publishing journals that appear between 1990 and 2019 are mentioned in detail in the appendix.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Culture – Saudi Arabia [25].

Notes on contributors

Eithar Alangari

Eithar Alangari is an assistant professor with+10 cumulative years of experience in the translation sector. Her expertise ranges from teaching in higher education, translation research and freelancing. Her academic background includes a Masters in English/Arabic Translation and Interpreting (Durham University) and a PhD in Translation Studies (University of Liverpool). Her research interests revolve around media translation, intercultural mediation, sociology of translation and corpus-based approaches. She has multiple academic contributions in the forms of four conference papers, seminars and a journal article. She is currently the vice dean for applied programmes and the director of translation and publishing department at Shaqra University, Saudi Arabia. She is also a member of the university’s executive committees on international scholarships and parentships.