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IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2010A WEB-BASED MULTILIGUAL DICTIONARY FORTERMINOLOGY OF POLYMERSTiago França Melo de Lima and Cláudio Gouvea dos SantosUniversidade Federal de Ouro PretoOuro Preto, MG – BrasilABSTRACTThis paper presents the current stage of development of a web-based system to support the construction of an onlinemultilingual dictionary for terminology of polymers. The dictionary allows users to do searches for terms and definitionsand find its translations to various languages such as English, Chinese, French, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish. This is aproject of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), world authority on nomenclature andterminology related to chemistry, and will bring benefits to scientific, academic and professional communities, expandingand facilitating the access to standards defined by IUPAC.KEYWORDSWeb-based system, dictionary, terminology, multilingual, polymer.1. INTRODUCTIONThe International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) "serves to advance the worldwide aspectsof the chemical sciences and to contribute to the application of chemistry in the service of Mankind"(IUPAC, 2010). Thus, IUPAC is recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature andterminology. Through their publications it endeavors to spread Chemistry-related information to thescientific, academic and industrial communities around the world. One of these efforts is the development ofa multilingual dictionary for science of polymers.This paper presents the current stage of the development of a web-based system to support building of anonline multilingual dictionary for terminology of polymers. It is expected that the development of this projectwill benefit the scientific community as a whole (researchers, professionals, teachers and students), servingas a quick reference for terms and definitions of the science of polymers, improving scientific communicationand expanding access to standards defined by IUPAC.2. THE MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARYThe dictionary for terminology of polymers is formed by a set of terms and definitions of polymers’nomenclature, currently standardized by the IUPAC in English, and their translations into several otherlanguages. Once the dictionary is publicly available through a website, users will be able to access a term andits definition in English, and also view their translations to several others languages.The project receives contributions from several countries. The current working group for translations isformed by chemists of Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czech Republic.Thus, the user interface should be common and without ambiguities for all users, avoiding interfering intranslation process.To support the construction of dictionary, the system should be flexible and efficient, allowing fast andefficient updates and additions of terms. All terms and definitions in dictionary should be in accordance withstandards established and approved by IUPAC. So, only authorized users can insert and update data ondictionary. Moreover, system interface should be simple and easy to use, due to its wide range of users.393