Academic Consulting

Academic Consulting has an excellent track record for providing high-quality transcription services. We specialise in research transcription, and are well-attuned to the specific transcription requirements of researchers. Advantages of using our service include:

• Transcripts are charged by the length of the recording time. This means that there are no nasty surprises when the bill arrives, and that you know exactly how much to request when applying for grants.
• Transcripts can be provided in a suitable format for import into QSR NVivo.
• Transcripts are quality controlled by a second staff member before being returned.
• All data files (both recordings and transcripts) are stored in a secure environment.
• Our transcription staff are extremely well qualified, and have completed well over 1,000 hours of recordings.

Booking a Transcription

If you would like to book a transcription job, please contact us on 09 522 0676 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Current Price List

Please download our latest price list for both intelligent and complete verbatim transcription. For information on these types of transcription, please consult our knowledge base article. Please note that prices are subject to change.

Turn-Around Time

Transcriptions are usually able to be returned within 7-12 working days, with the exception of very heavily booked periods. Fast turn around of transcripts (either 48 or 72 hours) is possible, but must be booked in advanced and surcharges will apply.

File Delivery

Recordings can be delivered by:

• CD/DVD/USB Drive
• Academic Consulting’s Internet transfer facility

Confidentiality Agreements

Academic Consulting staff are well versed in issues concerning confidentiality, and have clauses in their contracts that assure information is kept in confidence. We are also willing to sign confidentiality agreements for your research project. Please let us know if you would like to use our standard confidentiality agreement.

What to Expect in your Transcripts

Transcript Formatting

We have a default transcript format that we use, based on our experience analysing transcripts with NVivo. This includes:

• A header indicating the recording length and filename, transcriber's name, quality control assistant's name,  and any relevant comments regarding the recording or transcript that might be useful to the researcher
• Speaker  names  entered  on  a  separate  line  to  the  response and  formatted with a Heading 2 style (to allow autocoding to be conducted in NVivo)
• Arial 12 point text for spoken text
• Document language set to New Zealand English

We  also have specific conventions/rules we apply for things such as capitalisation, formatting of quotes and numbers, spelling of slang words etc.  Our conventions for  identifying unclear words or unknown terminology are provided.

Speaker Names

• We enter speaker names as ‘Researcher’ and ‘Participant’, or in the case of focus groups, ‘Participant 1’, ‘Participant 2’ etc. If you would like us to indicate speakers with their actual names, these must be provided to us before we start your transcription.
• For  focus  groups we will attempt to identify up to six speakers. However, we are only able to do this if each speaker introduces themselves at  the beginning of the recording. It would also assist if participants are regularly referred to by name throughout the recording.
• If you have a focus group with more than six speakers, or one in which participants do not introduce  themselves, please  discuss  with us the viability of identifying speakers when making your booking.

Useful Resources

Making the most of Transcription Services

Please contact us on 09 522 0676 or email us if you have any questions regarding our transcription services.