Transcribing interviews - fees?

Cat Melodeon

Does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to transcribe an hour long interview? I'd be looking at the following types of interview:

1 hr one-on-one interview
1 hr group interview (one interviewer, 5 participants)
MP3 format v tape recording

I know some people charge per minute of the recording, other per hour of how long they think it will take. The research topic does not contain any specialist language or require any technical knowledge.

baby and crumble

yeah usually, it's about 15-20 quid per hour of transcribing, and any interviews i've transcribed have taken about 3-4 times their length, however my population is people with disabilities which includes some speech difficulties.

I'd say for your 1 hour interview, with just 1 person you're probably looking at a minimum of 2 or 2/12 hours to transcribe it and edit it properly. Focus groups are always a pain because of the different voices and needing to know who is speaking, and if microphones don't pick everything up it's a nightmare. I'd budget 3-4 hours for that, to allow for those niggles.

If time isn't a factor I'd recommend transcribing your material yourself, because you really do get a heads up on familiarity with it, which is vital for analysis. PLus do you really have upwards of 100 quid to spare?

Also, you say mp3 vs tape? I'd always go with mp3, because if you are using a transcriber you'll most likely email the file, and also if you're constantly rewinding and forwarding tape it can wear out- not hugely likely. But you only have 1 copy, whereas once you copy your mp3 onto your comp you can back them up in a few locations which means its always safe. Last thing you need is your only cop of your interview getting lost of stolen.

Cat Melodeon

Cheers for that. I haven't done all the interviews myself but I will be transcribing all of them. Some are on mp3, others are on cassette, so it's good to know if one takes longer than the other (I'd imagine it would take longer on a cassette?).

baby and crumble

God yeah, it'll take ages longer on cassette, it's very finicky, especially if you don't have a player without a display of some kind. You might find it easier to actually transfer the casette recordings onto mp3, using this kind of a method-

Tape to computer

Prob save you a lot of transcribing time in the long run.

mary.

Little off topic here but am doing thesis at the minute and just wondering does anyone know if you are meant to put all interviews into appendix or just a selection? Don't have any guidelines on it.....

Cat Melodeon

I didn't put any of my transcripts in to the actual thesis, I just used vignettes (longer quotations) in the 'description of the data' chapter and kept the transcripts on file. Every subject area is different though, ask your supervisor and they'll set you right.

mary.

Thanks for that Cat. That sounds like a good way of doing it.Cheers