University Transcription

Due to our fast, accurate and reliable service, our university transcription service has grown through recommendation, with many PhD students, researchers and academics telling their colleagues and peers how Business Friend has assisted with their projects.

At Business Friend, we understand how vital academic research is in shaping future policies across society.  We are very fortunate to have transcribed many hours of recorded interviews and focus groups for universities across the UK since 2003, and thoroughly enjoy this aspect of our transcription service.  Our conscientious transcribers research project specific terminology, jargon and place names to ensure our clients receive a transcript that truly reflects their recording, and, rather than risking any mistakes slipping through the net, any inaudibles or phonetic guesses are put into square brackets and timestamped for ease of reference, for example, [inaudible 0:14:56] or [Imperial Avenue 0:46:10].

Another advantage of using Business Friend’s university transcription service is that, although our standard template is the preferred option for most of our clients, we can adapt our templates to meet your project requirements.  We are also experienced in transcribing interviews and focus groups ready for importing into NVivo qualitative research software.  Please Contact Us to discuss your project if you will be using NVivo to analyse your transcripts.

We also include timestamping every 10 minutes as part of our standard service, with additional timestamping available, and clients can choose from our popular “intelligent verbatim” service (also known as “clean verbatim”), or 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 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

At Business Friend, we understand confidentiality is an important factor when working on academic projects.  Participants may have agreed to take part in interviews or focus groups on the understanding their comments are treated with the utmost confidentiality, and some of the subjects discussed may be sensitive and should be 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 Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption, although we can receive files via other methods if required.  We can also password protect documents before returning them to you.

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

Our method of working is simple and effective: