Academic Research Transcription Services: 7 Things to Look For

It cannot be denied that transcriptions are valuable for various industries, such as biotechnology, legal, and market research. With transcripts, key insights can be unlocked faster, allowing those who use them to progress in their work without delay. Academic research is another field that benefits significantly from transcripts. With an academic research transcription, researchers can streamline collaboration, organize data, and even streamline the research process.

However, if you’re an academic researcher in need of transcriptions, it’s never a good idea to transcribe your audio and video recordings on your own. Instead, it’s always better to turn to professionals to get the job done. But when you’re looking for a transcription service, you shouldn’t hire the first transcription provider that you find. Instead, you should look into a few key features to see if they’re the right fit for your needs.

In this blog, discover the seven things you need to look for before hiring an academic research transcription service.

1. Reasonable Turnaround Times

When conducting academic research, researchers often have to compete against tight deadlines. With the aid of transcriptions, data analysis can be smoother, preventing delays that can potentially cause missed deadlines.

However, some researchers are discouraged from ordering transcripts because they worry about lengthy turnaround times. So, what possible solution do researchers have for this dilemma? Find a service with reasonable turnaround times.
If you’re looking for transcription services that can produce academic research transcripts, it’s always best that you look for one that offers a wide range of turnaround times, such as next-day delivery. Some even offer same-day delivery, depending on the length of your recording.

By choosing a transcription company with various turnaround times, you can order and receive your academic research transcripts without worrying about missing your deadline.

2. Security and Confidentiality

If you need an academic research transcription, you’ll have to give your transcription service your audio file or video recordings to get the job done. However, these recordings may contain sensitive information and details that should not be disclosed. Therefore, a transcription service’s security and confidentiality capabilities are another factor you need to consider first.

Security and confidentiality measures such as SSL encryption, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), privacy policies, and HIPAA and GDPR compliance are some of the standard features that transcription services typically provide. With these measures in place, any sensitive content your recordings contain will remain confidential.

3. Accuracy

Of course, accuracy is essential in academic research transcriptions. If your transcripts are inaccurate, it could lead to mistakes in your research. As such, when turning to a transcription company, you can first look at their reviews to make sure they have a reputation for a high degree of accuracy in their work.

In addition to looking at reviews, you can also vet your audio and video transcription company for accuracy by asking if they offer quality assurance processes, such as proofreading and editing. That way, you can ensure that they’re the right fit for your project's needs.

4. Costs

Ordering transcriptions can consume a certain amount of your academic research project’s funding. Therefore, cost is an essential factor that you need to look at when trying to pick a transcription company. When vetting potential transcription companies, you need to make sure that their prices are transparent and that they don’t have any hidden charges that can inflate your final bill. By doing so, you can properly check if their rates suit the budget allotted for transcriptions.

5. Customer Support

If you’re turning to a transcription company to order audio transcriptions, you should also look at how they handle customer service. Do they have an actual person who can chat with you about additional requests on their website, or are they using a mere chatbot? Do they have a dedicated email or phone number that you can contact if you have any concerns? If they do have an email address, how fast do they respond?

When vetting a transcription provider, these questions must be answered first. After all, you never know when you’ll need customer support for your transcription request. Often, you can find the answers to these questions in their reviews. This allows you to make an informed decision on whether or not a particular transcription service is the best choice for your project needs.

6. Specialization

If you need an academic research transcription for your project, you shouldn’t just turn to any transcription service. Instead, it’s best that you turn to a service that has transcriptionists who specialize in academic transcriptions. 

When you turn to a transcription service with staff who specialize in creating academic transcripts, it’s more likely that they’ll be more familiar with academic jargon and other industry-specific language compared to other transcriptionists. As a result, your transcripts can have a higher degree of accuracy, preventing mistakes in your research.

7. Additional Features

One final factor to consider when vetting a potential transcription service is whether it offers additional, specialized features. In audio transcriptions, even those used for academic research features such as speaker identification and timestamps can be helpful. With them, you’ll have written records of who said what in interviews or focus group discussions.

Additionally, with a feature like timestamps in the transcription, researchers will also know when, in the recording, your interviewee or focus group members said a particular quote. This helps you identify patterns and key insights faster, streamlining your academic research in the process.

Academic research transcriptions must be as precise and accurate as possible. That way, the research workflow can run smoothly, avoiding delays and missed deadlines in the process. To ensure that your transcripts remain highly accurate, turn to a transcription service as reliable as TranscriptionWing.

TranscriptionWing is the go-to service for high-quality human transcriptions. With over 25 years of experience in the industry, we cater to a variety of fields such as market research, legal, biotechnology, and of course, academia. Additionally, we offer reasonable rates and numerous turnaround time options to suit your needs better. Get started today and order precise and accurate transcripts that can help you make significant strides in your projects.