How to translate “доктор наук” (Doctor of Sciences) into English?

Interpretation, translation of academic degrees into English is often a headache for linguists specializing in the translation of the official documents (licenses, certificates of education) and directly academic papers. And it is not about small experience of a particular translator or the degree of knowledge of the language in such cases, it goes far beyond that, it affects the educational systems of different countries.

Our specialists previously prepared a detailed analysis on a similar topic, but they only wrote about the “кандидат наук” (“PhD”); in this material we briefly list a number of key features of such translations.

First of all, they concern the following:

• In our country, there are two education systems at the same time: one founded in the Soviet period, and the Bologna one.
• Other states have adopted their own approach to education and, consequently, their own approved standards and degree names.
• Many international organizations and services often do not accept groundless “adaptation” in the official documents.
  

How to correctly translate the phrase “доктор наук” (Doctor of Sciences) into English?

We have identified three typical situations in which the translation of a doctoral degree (доктор наук) varies. First of all, this, of course, depends on the requirements of the foreign organizations that ask linguists for predominantly literal translations. As for the rest, the translator’s decision is directly related to the direction of each particular publication.

The examples of translation of the scientific degree “доктор наук” (Doctor of Sciences) into English