4.2 Uploading and sending files

One important responsibility of the researcher is to manage data. This involves appropriately storing, destroying, and protecting interviewees’ data. Data needs to be stored securely and encrypted and/or password protected. You may have drawn up a data management plan as part of your research ethics application, if so, you need to ensure that the way you store the data is compliant with this. More advice from The Open University about writing a data management plan can be found here [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

If you are sending your recordings for transcription by someone else, you need to ensure the way you send this is secure and compliant with both your ethical approval and any requirements from the funder. This commonly means that you need to transfer files via a secure website rather than sending them by email.

Remember that even if you are using a professional transcription service, you will need to allow time to go through the transcript and check the accuracy, especially if your interview uses specialised or technical language. You will also need to anonymise the transcripts.