Who uses this form
Doctoral candidates, principal investigators, and research teams running qualitative interviews under an IRB or ethics protocol.
How to use the research interview log form
An interview log is the document that makes a qualitative dataset auditable. It records what happened around each interview - consent, conditions, who was present - which is what allows a finding to be traced back to its source months later, and what an ethics committee will ask about if questions arise.
The participant field asks for a study code rather than a name, and the whole template is built on that assumption. A log that carries participant names alongside interview content defeats the de-identification the protocol promised, and it is a common way an otherwise careful study ends up holding an identifying document.
Two fields exist because getting them wrong is expensive and both are usually decided implicitly. Transcription convention asks which convention this interview must be transcribed to, because true verbatim and cleaned verbatim support different analyses - conversation and discourse analysis need the hesitation and false starts that thematic analysis strips out. Deciding after transcripts arrive means re-listening to the audio.
De-identification instructions asks what counts as an identifier in this study and whether the transcriptionist removes or merely flags them. "Remove identifiers" is not a specification: participants name employers, clinics, and neighbourhoods spontaneously, in forms no prepared list anticipates, and a transcript containing no names can still identify someone to a reader who knows the setting.
Recording conditions is included because transcriptionists need it. Background noise, interruptions, and overlapping speakers affect what is achievable, and flagging them in advance is more useful than discovering them in the returned transcript.
The setting field asks who else was present, which is a methodological note rather than an administrative one. An interview conducted with a spouse in the room, or in a clinical setting with staff passing through, produces different data from the same interview conducted privately - participants moderate what they disclose. If that is not recorded at the time, nobody analysing the transcript six months later can account for it.
Duration is worth capturing accurately because it is the basis of the transcription cost and of the analytic workload. A study is usually planned against an assumed average interview length, and the difference between a planned forty-five minutes and an actual seventy across thirty participants is substantial in both money and calendar time. Logging it as you go makes the overrun visible while there is still time to adjust.
One practical habit this log supports: completing it immediately after each interview rather than in a batch at the end of fieldwork. Field notes written the same day capture affect, hesitation, and the interviewer own reactions while they are still recoverable. Written a fortnight later they are reconstruction, and they carry the confidence of a contemporaneous note without the reliability.
Every field, explained
15 fields. Required fields are marked; the rest are optional.
Study
- Study TitleTextRequired
- Study this interview belongs to
- Protocol NumberTextRequired
- IRB or ethics committee approval number
- InterviewerTextRequired
- Who conducted the interview
Participant
- Participant IdentifierTextRequired
- Study code for the participant - use the code, never the name, so this record stays de-identified
- Consent ObtainedChoiceRequired
- Form of consent recorded before the interview began
- Consent DateDateRequired
- When consent was given
- Recording ConsentLong textRequired
- Whether the participant consented to audio recording, and any limits they set
Interview
- Interview DateDateRequired
- Date the interview took place
- Duration (minutes)Number
- Length of the recording
- SettingText
- Where the interview happened and who else was present
- Recording ConditionsLong text
- Background noise, interruptions, or anything affecting audio quality - transcriptionists need this
Transcription
- Transcription ConventionChoiceRequired
- Which convention this interview must be transcribed to - decide before sending, because converting afterwards means re-listening
- De-identification InstructionsLong textRequired
- What counts as an identifier in this study, and whether the transcriptionist removes or flags them - "remove identifiers" is not a specification
Notes
- Field NotesLong text
- Observations not captured on the recording: affect, hesitation, non-verbal response, and the interviewer own reflections
- Topics CoveredLong text
- Which interview-guide areas were reached, and anything unexpected the participant raised
What a completed form is used for
- Logging each interview in a qualitative study
- Evidencing consent for an ethics committee or audit
- Instructing a transcription service on convention and de-identification
- Recording field notes that the audio does not capture
- Tracking which interview-guide topics were covered across participants
Research Interview Log questions
What should a research interview log record?
Study title and protocol number, interviewer, participant study code, the form and date of consent including recording consent, interview date and duration, setting and who was present, recording conditions, the transcription convention required, de-identification instructions, and field notes not captured on the recording.
Why decide the transcription convention before transcribing?
Because converting afterwards means re-listening to the audio. True verbatim retains fillers, repetitions, and false starts, which conversation and discourse analysis treat as data. Cleaned verbatim removes them for readability, suiting thematic analysis. A transcript in the wrong convention can make a finding an artefact of the transcription rather than the data.
How should transcripts be de-identified?
That is a study-specific decision and it needs to be specified rather than assumed. Decide whether the transcriptionist removes identifiers, flags them for you, or leaves them intact in a secure transcript de-identified later. All three are defensible. What is not defensible is nobody having chosen - and note that indirect identifiers frequently survive name removal.
Can we use a third-party transcription service under our IRB protocol?
Usually, provided participant confidentiality is preserved and the arrangement is disclosed in the protocol - your IRB is the authority on your specific study. What a vendor can tell you is whether files are encrypted, whether access is logged, whether material is used to train models, and whether they will sign a confidentiality agreement.
The regulatory information on this page is general background compiled from public primary sources, not legal or compliance advice. Requirements change and vary by jurisdiction and by court. Verify current rules with the relevant authority or your own counsel before relying on them.