Gone the days of Verbatim Transcription in Mixed Method Research?

Background

Verbatim Transcription is probably one of the most labor-intensive activities in research and surprisingly it does not often require any research-specific skillset; rather it requires clerical skills. No matter how interesting and thought-provoking the interview is, creating a verbatim transcription out of it is always monotonous. On top of that, most of the data is scattered in the transcription, sometimes it is so fragmented that the researchers may become overwhelmed just by gazing upon it. While discussing qualitative methods Dr. Sandelowski (1) argued,

“Transcripts are accurate and useful to the extent that the researcher understands their constructed reality, the need to be selective concerning what about the interview event must be preserved, the potential uses for transcripts that will influence the selection process, and the need for a consistent notation system.”

On top of these issues, verbatim transcriptions often suffer severely to recreate the context of the data, data loss, misinterpretation, and various other types of biases and errors by the transcribers (2–5).

Problems with Verbatim Transcription

“I argue that, in certain cases, verbatim transcription can limit the kind of information that may be considered valuable as data, and delay the processes of data reduction and analysis, thus separating the researcher from the fieldwork event.” (4)

The above-mentioned quote was made by Loubere regarding the study he was conducting in China. In the beginning of the research, he intended to use verbatim transcription, but later decided to crucially inspect the role of transcription in a multilingual and cross-cultural setting. Realizing the flaws with verbatim transcription in such setting, he opted for a new method called the systematic and reflexive interviewing and reporting (SRIR) that can begin the coding and analysis process right at the field (4), which interprets rich data and better reliability.

In a study with Australian nurses, the researchers compared two methods of analyzing the focus group data, (i) the traditional transcription method, and (ii) direct analysis from the audio recordings; and found that both of the methods identified identical themes and sub-themes from the FGDs, hence, concluded that both of the methods of analyzing FGD data will produce the same results (6).

Alternative to Traditional Transcription methods

With the ever-increasing demand and popularity of Rapid methods of Qualitative Inquiry, such as (i) Rapid Ethnography (7–9), (ii) RADaR (10), (iii) Rapid Appraisal (11), for these methods efficiency, accuracy, and financial benefits (7,12,13), it’s expected that the need for developing suitable techniques of transcription and data analysis only increase. Hence, studies have proposed various alternatives to traditional transcription methods, including-

§  Identifying themes directly from audio recordings (12,14–17)

§  Mind mapping (18,19)

§  Using Scribes (3,20),

§  Combination of multiple techniques (5)

§  Using Visual and audio recording (21) and lastly

§  The systematic and reflexive interviewing and reporting (SRIR) (4).

Apart from these, one study explored ways of improving the quality of transcription (22), and went on evaluating multiple methods mentioned-above, and later opted for a mode of transcription, which roughly falls under the above-mentioned category of ‘Combination of multiple Techniques’.

Benefits of Rapid Techniques in Qualitative Research

Studies mentioned numerous benefits of utilizing the Rapid Techniques in Qualitative Research, especially in mixed-method studies. These benefits include but are not limited to-

        i.            Need less time (7,20)

      ii.            Costs less (2–4,7,20)

    iii.            Can collect more data in a given time than the traditional methods (7)

    iv.            Has greater efficiency (7)

      v.            Has greater accuracy (2–5,7,14,23,24)

    vi.            Can better recreate the narrated realities (7,14)

Conclusion

Verbatim Transcription has its flaws, but it is still one of the most reliable and favored methods, which makes it hard to replace. However, with new and emerging technologies, other methods such as untranscribed audio recordings, Scribes, and SRIR methods are becoming popular because of its accuracy, low cost, and ease of use. Personally, I found Scribes and SRIR methods superior to other methods, but you might find another more preferable.

Reference

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