Translators’ Motivations for Title Selection in Iran: A Quantitative Study of the Role of Contextual and Professional Factors

Abstract

Acknowledging translator’s agency, the present research argues what remains relatively under-explored in translation studies is how translators’ demographics and professional background closely interacts with their decision-making when it comes to book selection criteria. Therefore, this quantitative research examines whether professional factors of, among other things, translation experience, educational degree, significantly affect translators’ selection criteria for book translation in contemporary Iran. Based on a snowball sampling method, 248 professional translators answered a self-report questionnaire, which collected their professional data and measured their preferences based on a range of book selection criteria, including socio-cognitive considerations, externally driven motivations, success guarantee factors, translators’ authority and agency, internally driven motivations and publishers’ authority and agency. Results indicated that only translators’ educational background, experience, and field of study significantly predicted their book selection criteria. Further, their educational degree affected their book selection criteria, such as externally driven motivations, publishers’ authority and agency, success guarantee factors.