The entries in this dictionary essentially consist of a headword in English and one or more Spanish equivalents. My choice of Spanish terms was guided by their frequency of use, but I have highlighted words that are somewhat controversial because they are either linguistically or conceptually incorrect, or simply ambiguous.
Many of the main entries include fields with additional information that I will briefly explain below using some examples from the dictionary.
For English expressions with numerous possible translations in Spanish, I provide the most common – or the most suitable – translation and then list other possibilities in the sections Otras variantes o posibilidades (Other variants and possibilities) and En otros contextos (Other contexts), i.e., contexts outside clinical research. Example:
Translations that might be considered controversial because of linguistic incorrectness, conceptual inaccuracy or ambiguity are denoted by a warning asterisk (*), regardless of their frequency of use:
Words and expressions with a clearly local flavour are denoted by a superscript two-character code indicating the country or geographic region: AM for Latin America, AR for Argentina, ES for Spain and MX for Mexico:
The section Sinónimos (Synonyms) provides common equivalents in English (including British and American English variants), while the section Abr. includes all types of shortened forms – initialisms, acronyms, contractions and symbols – that are common in written English. These may be included as an abbreviated form of a headword or of any of its synonyms:
Many of the entries contain three sections that will be of particular interest to translators: Contexto (EN) (English context), Contexto (ES) (Spanish context) and Notas (Notes).
a) Contexto (EN): The English context section includes definitions or examples of usage in English together with the source reference in square brackets.
b) Contexto (ES): The Spanish context section includes definitions or examples of usage in Spanish together with the source reference in square brackets.
c) Notas: The Notes section offers additional information of interest to translators, such as warnings regarding usage, learning points and references to original sources.
As all the English synonyms and abbreviations that appear in the main entries also have an entry of their own, this dictionary has over 4300 entries (as of July 2018). The dictionary has 2948 cross references, both increasing the usefulness of the dictionary and making it much simpler to browse.
There are two types of cross references: references to equivalent terms, denoted by the symbol ≈, and references that direct users from a synonym or abbreviation to a main entry. In the first case, the example below shows that the term returned by the search engine for registration dossier is a synonym of marketing authorization application and that its translation can be found by clicking the cross reference:
In the second case, the example shows that ARI is an abbreviation for both absolute risk increase and annual risk of infection (among other possibilities), and that the Spanish equivalent can be found under the expanded definition.
The dictionary also uses another type of cross referencing, denoted by an arrow (→), which directs the user to another part of the dictionary to clarify doubts, learn more, or compare the term with another one with an opposite or complementary meaning:
