Research Transcription

By outsourcing the transcription of face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews and focus groups, researchers can concentrate on other aspects of their project, rather than being slowed down with the daunting task of transcribing all the recordings themselves.  Our experienced transcribers take great pride in producing accurate transcripts to enable researchers to analyse and report their findings, and we are a curious and conscientious team who actually take great pleasure in researching project specific terminology, jargon and place names to ensure our clients receive the most accurate transcript possible.  If, on the rare occasion, we are beaten, then any inaudibles or phonetic guesses are put into square brackets and timestamped for ease of reference, for example [inaudible 0:30:32] or [St Mary’s Place 0:56:12].

Another advantage of using Business Friend’s qualitative research transcription service is our standard template includes timestamps every 10 minutes, with the option of adding extra timestamping if required, for example, at every speaker change.  And, whilst the majority of our transcription projects require our “intelligent verbatim” service (where habitual ums, ers and hesitations are omitted from the transcript for ease of reading), we do also offer a full verbatim service.  Below is an example of an intelligent verbatim transcript and a full verbatim transcript of the same interview:

 Intelligent verbatim:

Q:  And what days do you go to the centre?

A:   I usually go there on a – on a Tuesday, that’s when the taxi arrives to pick me up.  The driver is always really helpful.

Full verbatim:

Q:  Um, and what – what days do you go to the centre?

A:   I – I – I usually go there on a – on a, um – on a Tuesday, that’s when the, er, the taxi arrives to – to pick me up.  Um, the driver is always really, er, helpful

Whilst our standard template is the preferred option for most of our clients, we can adapt our Templates to meet specific requirements.  We are also experienced in transcribing interviews and focus groups ready for importing into NVivo, so please Contact Us to discuss your project if you will be using NVivo to analyse your transcripts.

Confidentiality is an important factor when working on qualitative research projects.  Participants may have agreed to take part in the research on the understanding their comments are treated with the utmost confidentiality, and some transcripts are very sensitive and should not be in the public domain unless participants are fully anonymised.  If required, Business Friend can anonymise transcripts whilst transcribing, for example, by replacing personal names with [name], and local places or companies with [place] and [organisation].  Business Friend’s Privacy Policy provides information and reassurance that we adhere to strict confidentiality practices, and our secure File Transfer service uses military grade 128-bit AES encryption, although we can receive files via other methods if required.  We can also password protect documents before returning them to you.

For information on how to use Business Friend’s audio transcription service, please see How We Work.  To receive a quote for transcribing your research, please use our Quote Request Form or Contact Us with your requirements.  You can also use our Transcription Calculator (below) as a useful guide.

Our method of working is simple and effective: