Transcription and Data Management

You may think that transcription is the simple yet tedious process of typing recordings of conversations or interviews before data analysis can begin. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you plan your research project, a series of questions must be asked and answered to assure that the transcripts support the data analysis process. Questions like “What level of detail should be included?” “How should the data be represented?” “Who should do the transcribing? “What recording and transcription equipment is needed? “What ethical considerations need to be taken into account?” “How do I keep track of all the data?” In this chapter we present a process for qualitative researchers to select the transcription approach best suited to their project.