Transcribing interviews for a dissertation or thesis
Twelve interviews take a few weeks to run and much longer to type up. Automatic transcription moves the work from typing to checking. This page covers what to plan for, what belongs in the appendix and how to describe it in your methods chapter.
Transcribe 30 minutes free. No card needed.
A realistic time budget
Transcription handbooks put manual transcription at several times the length of the recording; Dresing and Pehl (2018) give five to ten times. Twelve 45-minute interviews are then somewhere between 45 and 90 hours of typing.
An automatic transcript removes the typing, not the checking. Plan one pass per interview with the recording playing, correcting names, technical terms and anything that sounds wrong. Every passage in the editor has a timestamp you can click to hear it again.
Decide on your conventions first
Most qualitative projects use a clean, readable transcript: verbatim content, light smoothing of fillers and false starts, and consistent speaker labels. Discourse or conversation analysis needs far more detail, such as pauses, overlaps and intonation. Agree the level with your supervisor and state it in the methods chapter. The guide to transcribing qualitative interviews compares the options.
What belongs in the appendix
Whether full transcripts go into the appendix or into a separate data deposit is set by your institution, so check its guidance.
- Pseudonymised transcripts, with names, places and organisations replaced.
- Line numbers, so you can cite passages as "P3, l. 45". The Word export adds them on request.
- Consistent speaker labels, for example I for the interviewer and P1, P2 for participants.
- Timestamps, if examiners should be able to trace a passage back to the recording.
Describing it in your methods chapter
Say what tool you used, which conventions you followed and how you checked the output. A sentence you can adapt:
Interviews were audio-recorded with participants’ consent and transcribed automatically with Themera. Each transcript was then checked in full against the recording, corrected and brought in line with the transcription conventions described above. Names, places and organisations were pseudonymised before analysis.
Consent and ethics approval
Your consent form and ethics application should cover recording, transcription by an external service and how long data is kept. Questions about this belong with your ethics committee or data protection officer. How Themera handles recordings is set out under GDPR and transcription.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI transcription allowed in a dissertation?
That depends on your institution and supervisor. Ask first and disclose it in your methods chapter.
How are passages from transcripts cited?
A participant code plus line number, such as (P3, l. 45), is common. Your style guide or department sets the exact format.
What does it cost?
The free account includes transcription minutes to try it, with no card needed. For a whole thesis there is a one-off Thesis plan with no subscription.
Related
Further reading
Transcribe 30 minutes free
No card needed. Upload a recording, check the transcript, download it as Word, text or for MAXQDA.