Interviews are Data: Why I Transcribe into Excel and Not Word, and What this Means for NVivo Coding
Channel: Eileen Boswell
Date: 08/02/2022

Conventional wisdom leads many researchers to unquestioningly use a word processing document to transcribe interview data. A word processing document—whether the interview has been manually transcribed or not—is one possible container and workspace for this type of data. An alternative container and workspace for interview data is the electronic spreadsheet. This poster session explores the affordances and drawbacks of working with (verbal) interview data in both formats and the implications for NVivo coding depending on which format(s) a researcher selects before uploading into NVivo. Issues such as linearity, sequence and sorting, color-coding, text formatting (e.g., italics, bold), and how to use various NVivo features to your advantage with both Word and Excel data files. Viewers will be invited to participate asynchronously via a QR-code-linked collaborative space where they can discuss how to select the appropriate format for their data uploads based on their particular research design, data objects, coding strategies, and timelines.