Professional academic transcription is a service which is regularly used by students everywhere of all disciplines – undergraduate and postgraduate students, lecturers, professors, doctoral students, and many more in the area of higher education. For a variety of reasons, students and academic professionals often require the services of a professional transcription company to assist them in their research.
These academic service users are often working to very tight deadlines, for example, PhD students may need to deliver a certain number of transcriptions as part of a research project or theses. Transcription is something that is very time-consuming, something which many over-worked academic professionals and students can simply not find the time carry out themselves to a high standard. For even the most skilled, experienced transcriptionist, a straightforward one-to-one interview with clear audio can take up to four times the length of the actual audio file to transcribe. For an audio file an hour in length, that’s a good afternoon or evening’s worth of hard work, time which could be better spent elsewhere, on actual research perhaps. Furthermore, academic professionals and students alike may not have the same high quality skills as a professional transcriber, who is an expert in formatting, presentation, can type to very high speeds and generally has excellent grammar and punctuation skills.
The fees for such a service are wide and varied, and very much depends on quality of service and what turnaround option is needed. The cheapest service offered is where the turnaround for delivery is more relaxed and no extra proofreading is required. Many companies also charge extra per speaker, so the more speakers in the interviews, the more expensive it is. There are many different pricing structures available to suit different needs and budgets. It is an industry standard to charge by the minute, that is per minute of recorded audio. This means that if the tape is, for example, 60 mins in length, and the fee is £0.75p per minute, the total fee will be £45.00. There is no hourly fee involved and you only pay for the length of the file. This means it is very easy to calculate the cost of each transcription project and fit it into your budget.
Many students, professors, and academic staff will often already have a research budget or grant to assist with conducting research and paying for these services. Nevertheless, affordability is often key to the student, and will be the main factor in determining their choice of transcription service, alongside accuracy and the ability to deliver the transcripts at a time they specify. Discounts and incentives for students can be an attractive proposition. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool among students; good experiences with one company will often lead to students passing on information to others who may have need of the same service and a good reputation will always be the best marketing tool.