Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research 
 
RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT AND OPEN DATA 
 
6-7 October 2015 
University of Manchester, UK 
 
 
HANDLING QUALITATIVE DATA-
TRANSCRIPTION, LISTING  
(AND QUALIBANK) 
Libby Bishop, UK Data Service 
Overview for this session 
 
•Transcription 
 
•Data listing (documentation) 
 
•Digitisation 
 
•QualiBank 
Data transcription 
• translation between forms 
 
• all transcription is:  
• representational 
• selective – can be multiple-perspective for video 
• interpretive 
• theoretical 
 
  
Transcription template 
Should: 
• possess a unique identifier 
• adopt a uniform layout throughout the research project 
• make use of speaker tags - turn-taking 
• carry line breaks 
• be page numbered 
• carry a document header giving brief details of the interview: date, 
place, interviewer name, interviewee details, etc. 
 
Other considerations: 
• cover page 
• compatibility with import features of Qualitative Data Analysis 
Software (QDAS) e.g., Atlas.ti, MAXQDA, and others 
Transcription and data sharing 
• added issues to consider when transcribing for data sharing 
 
• in what format will the transcript be accessed?  
• paper 
• digital file 
• web 
• standalone or part of collection 
 
• who will be reading the transcript? 
• need for more/different contextual information (‘metadata’) for 
secondary users?  
• exposes the researcher’s practices 
 
In practice: transcript format 
 
Data-level documentation 
• Aim to embed this documentation in your data file 
 
• Bigger issue lurking – metadata vs. data….no clear boundary (NSA) 
 
• Qualitative data/text documents: 
• interview transcript speech demarcation (speaker tags) 
• document header with brief details of interview date, place, 
interviewer name, interviewee details, context 
 
• A user guide could contain a variety of documents that provide 
context: interview schedule, transcription notes, even photos 
 
Qualitative study – user guide and doc 
Qualitative study – data listing 
• Data listing provides an at-a-glance summary of interview sets 
 
Digitisation of data 
Non-digital data can (and should!) be digitised. 
 
Approach dependent on situation 
• e.g. type of data, resources availably, purpose of digitisation 
 
Some general notes: 
Photographs 
• scan and save as TIFF 
Maps 
• scan, geo-reference using GIS software, and save as GeoTIFF 
Audio e.g. audio recording 
• capture as WAV 
Video 
• video formats complex, take care when digitising/converting to 
avoid degradation and errors 
 
 
 
 
 
Digitising textual data 
Text – more complex, with tiers of digitisation: 
 
Create image file 
• scan (or photograph) and save as TIFF image file 
• used for poor typeface, handwritten materials, text with tables & 
graphs 
 
Create searchable PDF  
• collate TIFFs and convert to PDF 
• bookmark PDF file for navigation: contents page, headings & metadata 
 
Create rich text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) 
• automatically convert TIFF to RTF format 
• requires rigorous proof reading and checking 
 
Transcribe manually 
• represent the original material as closely as possible 
• avoid using formatting in data files 
Exploring data online 
 
 
Our data management guidance 
• Online best practice guidance: ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data.aspx 
• Managing and Sharing Research Data – a Guide to Good Practice: (Sage 
Publications Ltd) 
• Helpdesk for queries: ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/get-in-touch.aspx 
• Training: www.data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/advice-
training/events  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our guidance 
• plan to share research data 
• legal and ethical aspects of data 
sharing and reuse 
• data copyright 
• documentation and metadata to 
understand and use data 
• file formats, organising, versioning 
and quality control 
• storage, backup, encryption and 
security of data and files 
• strategies for collaborative research 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Other resources 
• Research Data Management Training MANTRA (Edinburgh) – online 
learning units, also e.g. RDM guidance for N-Vivo 
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/ 
• NASA Distributed Active Archive Centre: 
http://daac.ornl.gov/PI/pi_info.shtml  
• Digital Curation Centre: 
• Data management planning 
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/data-management-plans 
• Data management training / courses 
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/training/data-management-courses-and-
training 
 
• Model consent form: http://www.data-
archive.ac.uk/media/112638/ukdamodelconsent.pdf 
• Survey consent statement: http://data-
archive.ac.uk/media/147338/ukdasurveyconsent.doc  
• Transcription template: http://data-
archive.ac.uk/media/136055/ukdamodeltranscript.pdf 
• Transcription instructions: http://data-archive.ac.uk/media/285633/ukda-
example-transcription-instructions.pdf 
• Transcription confidentiality agreement: http://data-
archive.ac.uk/media/285636/ukda-transcriber-confidentiality-
agreement.pdf  
• Data list template: http://data-
archive.ac.uk/media/2989/UK%20Data%20Archive%20Example%20Data%20L
ist.pdf  
• RDM costing tool: www.data-archive.ac.uk/media/247429/costingtool.pdf 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Tools & templates