Cochrane Brazil manages a team of volunteer translators who work on systematic review abstracts and Plain Language Summaries. Part of this process involves editing and ensuring the quality of the Portuguese translations produced before they are published. Due to the popularity of WhatsApp in the country, Patricia Logullo, translation editor at Cochrane Brazil, has been using the app as a way to communicate with the translation volunteers. Here she tells us more about the initiative.

WhatsApp is hugely popular in Brazil, with over 100 million users. People use it both personally and professionally, individually or in groups with families or colleagues, without the need of a desktop computer. Nearly 100% of Internet users in Brazil use the messaging app, more than any other similar app or service. People stay connected through their mobile phones, which they use constantly.

Many of the Portuguese translation volunteers at Cochrane Brazil are also researchers at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo. They are part of a WhatsApp group whose purpose is to share information on a daily basis about research findings news, courses or symposia, exams questions, duty schedules, group meetings etc. Over the last year, we have been identifying the main mistakes and difficulties our translators have had with their own language. So, in December 2015, we started to send short texts, like tweets, about Portuguese grammar and writing but with a funny or ironic tone to the WhatsApp group, which I call 'Portuguese Pills'. They receive these short, easy to read messages (about 150 words) via their mobile phones, without needing to access a computer. The Portuguese Pills sometimes deal also with scientific terminology, symbols, and other issues our translators face every day.

The 'Portuguese Pills' are inspired and prepared during the revision process of the Cochrane Abstracts translated by the volunteers. They always touch on sensitive issues: the mistakes that translators make in their own work. The idea was to make them remember things they certainly learned in school, but as busy researchers, they did not have the time to study again, nor did they have appropriate grammar books to consult (and would not be familiar with those).

The response to the pills was very positive. Our translators have become accustomed to receiving these tips on the use of Portuguese and they often answer the messages immediately, with comments such as: "I did not remember this, thank you", or "I didn't know it worked this way! Now I understand!" They feel that the grammar tips can be used both in their translation activity for Cochrane and for their personal life: thesis, dissertations, research projects, grants reports.

Whenever I write and distribute a new pill through the WhatsApp group, I also save it to a folder, so I have a stock of pills ready to go if the same mistakes arise again. They are now being published online. Soon we intend to add new volunteers to the WhatsApp group, so that more translators can receive them too.

In conclusion, WhatsApp has proved a very useful tool to communicate with the volunteers. I would encourage other translation teams to consider using this system, which is more efficient than email.

Patricia Logullo
Translation editor
Cochrane Brazil