Learning how to conduct qualitative research is challenging. If you are fortunate to work under a skilled and experienced researcher, as I was, you can apprentice with them and learn the steps, navigate the pitfalls, and be confident your process is rigorous and sound. There are textbooks and articles that help you create interview questionnaires and code data. For example, one of my favorites is Deterding and Waters (2021) which explains almost all the steps involved in iterative coding, and compares it to grounded theory and other methods. However, it does have one limitaiton, their “…formal analytic procedure begins once the interview transcripts are complete and the database is set up.” This is common in ‘how-to do qualitative coding’ literature. Blank (2014) explains how to teach graduate students to do that coding, step-by-step, using a 5-week course. However, what is missing in this literature, especially for students who do not work with skilled qualitative researchers is this pre-analysis and indexing stage referred to by Deterding & Waters. In other words, nothing explains the steps researchers need to get from audio recordings to complete transcripts. That is the gap I am filling with this blog. How do you move from “the interview is recorded” to “the interview is ready to code?”
Further, I hope to explain how can you enlist others’ help in that process. I have trained a few dozen people in these techniques over about 15 years of research. The process changes slightly over time, with advances in transcription, AI, and qualitative data analysis software. But, the key considerations remain the same.
Step 1: You have the transcribed interview
Note: If you do not have your completed transcript, here are some IU resources to help you move from audio files to transcribed interview. We currently have automated transcription available to us, at no cost, learn more here: https://ssrc.indiana.edu/services/ats.html. In the past, I have had great success with transcription companies online who charged reasonable rates, quick turnaround, and great quality. However, even affordable transcription can quickly escalate into thousands of dollars per research project. If you have it in your budget, professional transcription can expedite some of the steps I will outline here, notably checking transcripts for accuracy and removing some identifiable information because professional transcriptionists can do a better job there. However, my approach includes those steps, which makes it applicable to both automated transcription and professional transcription.
So you have the transcribed interviews in hand. And they are mostly correct. They may or may not have timestamps, they indicate who each speaker is, and they run through the interview in chronological format. Why isn’t this document ready to be coded?
Step 2: Checking transcript for accuracy
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Step 3: Removing identifiable information
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Step 4: Indexing information
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Step 5: Auto-coding in NVivo
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Recommended citation: Northcutt Bohmert, M (2024). Pre-Analysis Transcript Preparation for In-Depth Interviews. Dr. Northcutt Bohmert Research Lab. https://blogs.iu.edu/mimnb/?p=97&preview=true
