The semi-structured interview is the most widely used method in qualitative research. The researcher has a topic guide but allows the participant to develop their responses freely. This freedom produces the rich, textured data that makes qualitative research so illuminating - and produces transcripts that are long, complex, and highly demanding to produce manually.
Fast, accurate transcription for research-grade data
Listen transcribes a one-hour interview in minutes. The transcript quality - lexical precision, preservation of hesitations and reformulations - meets the scientific requirements of qualitative research. For focus groups that provide complementary data, see our article on focus group transcription.
Anonymisation and GDPR/IRB compliance
Research participants are entitled to anonymity. The researcher must manually anonymise the transcript before archiving - replacing names, locations and identifying details. Listen's iCloud-only storage facilitates GDPR compliance (UK/EU) and IRB protocol requirements (US), as data is never held on third-party research infrastructure.
Collect written informed consent before the interview. Specify that the recording will be transcribed and then deleted - and follow through on this commitment.
View our plans for researchers.