title: Court reporters: a viable solution for the challenges of focus group data collection?
abstract: Focus group interviews are a common approach to data collection in qualitative research projects. They are, however, a method with the potential for methodological and pragmatic difficulties, many of which stem from transcribing focus group data from an audiotape. An alternative to postinterview transcription is the use of a court reporter. Advantages found using court reporters were increased accuracy, timely receipt of transcripts, less distraction for focus group facilitators, guaranteed confidentiality, time saved reviewing transcripts, and convenience. Because court reporters do not traditionally work in health research, there might be issues with medical terminology that require diligence on the part of the researcher to ensure that jargon is appropriately identified and transcribed. Using court reporters in rural areas might be cost-prohibitive because of travel expenses. Court reporters offer a viable and worthwhile approach to data transcription, and in our experience, have provided our research team with rich and accurate data.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Shannon D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: O'Leary
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dehaeck
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hindmarsh
authors.forename: John Garry
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Martin H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Osmond
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D017144:Focus Groups / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D036301:Qualitative Research