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Sociologists commonly record interviews; however, most coding and analysis is done from transcriptions rather than from the audio recording itself. Transcribing sound into text is an often unquestioned and almost hallowed step in qualitative research. Yet, the question of what is lost in transcription is worth revisiting given advances in artificial intelligence, ethics, and new conceptual concerns that challenge processes of knowledge production. In this article, I aim to offer inspiration for listening to interviews-data that can be heard-in qualitative research. I discuss practical, ethical, and conceptual considerations that may come with analyzing interview recordings, tracking the reasons why scholars have come to rely on transcripts and the possible shortcomings of doing so. I argue that by adhering to a tradition of working with only the transcript, researchers miss rich layers of sensory, emotional, and embodied data. Instead, I suggest the use of listening as one of the key methods in analyzing the constitutive role of emotions and atmospheres in qualitative interview research.

Social egg freezing (SEF) is the process of freezing a woman’s eggs for non‐medical reasons to preserve her ability to become pregnant in the future. SEF is both praised as a procedure that every woman should consider to prolong fertility, and criticized for medicalizing social problems, making unrealistic promises, trivializing risks, and having a poor cost–benefit ratio. This article explores the debate surrounding SEF and societal attitudes towards it in Austria, a country currently discussing the legalization of the procedure. Ten qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals involved in the public debate on medically assisted reproduction (MAR). Thematic analysis revealed three groups of respondents—advocates, ambivalents, and one opponent—who held different views on several key themes. All groups perceived SEF as not being “the” solution to the underlying problem of balancing parenthood and work. Interviewees demanded comprehensive counseling before SEF, including information about the technical procedure and medical risks. Many interviewees characterized the Austrian debate on MAR as polarized, describing policymakers as frequently uninformed and the political system as stagnant and reluctant to reform. They also expressed a need for more public debate in an open and dialogue‐driven spirit. This article contributes to existing research by investigating the Austrian discourse on SEF, a topic that has rarely been explored. It shows that the regulation of SEF remains controversial in Austria, with attitudes towards it being based not only on the right to reproductive autonomy, but also on a wide range of broader social issues in contemporary societies.

Recording and transcribing interviews in qualitative social research is a vital but time-consuming and resource-intensive task. To tackle this challenge, researchers have explored various alternative approaches; automatic transcription utilising speech recognition algorithms has emerged as a promising solution. The question of whether automated transcripts can match the quality of transcripts produced by humans remains unanswered. In this paper we systematically compare multiple automatic transcription tools: Amberscript, Dragon, F4x, Happy Scribe, NVivo, Sonix, Trint, Otter, and Whisper. We evaluate aspects of data protection, accuracy, time efficiency, and costs for an English and a German interview. Based on the analysis, we conclude that Whisper performs best overall and that similar local-automatic transcription tools are likely to become more relevant. For any type of transcription, we recommend reviewing the text to ensure accuracy. We hope to shed light on the effectiveness of automatic transcription services and provide a comparative frame for others interested in automatic transcription.

Emotions play an important role in the qualitative research process. They can both hinder and facilitate scientific inquiry. Scholars rooted in different traditions of qualitative interpretative methods have emphasized the need to reflect on researchers' subjectivity. Thus, we argue that reflexive approaches can offer a starting point for exploring emotions in the qualitative research process. In this article, we introduce the special issue on \"Emotions in the Qualitative Research Process.\" We provide a brief insight into the topic and discuss different theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. By focusing on the qualitative interview methods, we underline the importance of considering emotional reflexivity as a central element of interactive field research.

Good survey research depends on asking the right questions; it is the only way to ensure that the information collected from respondents is suitable for providing good answers to our research questions. The article discusses and advocates a comprehensive consideration of qualitative-interpretive methodology in open forms of pretesting for the evaluation of draft survey questionnaires. We outline an approach we call Qualitative Pretest Interview (QPI). It transfers the idea of negotiated common understanding in everyday communication to the clarification of meaning in draft survey questions and similar stimuli. The QPI involves ascribing interview partners the role of co-experts in this process and employing methodically integrated communication strategies. This paper focusses on how QPIs are conducted. Using an example interview, we illustrate how the particular way of qualitative pretest interviewing aims at a dialogic clarification of meaning in order to reach intersubjective understanding between participant and interviewer. In the process, we gain detailed insights into how and why a certain questionnaire might not work as intended, and ideally how this might be alleviated. QPIs pursue similar goals as Cognitive Interviews but rely more systematically on qualitative-interpretive methodology.

Visual communication of romantic partners on social network sites (SNSs) is tied to normative discourses addressing different reference groups. By sharing pictures of the couple (relationship visibility), partners legitimize their romantic bond, increase relationship satisfaction, or discourage alternative partners. Nevertheless, injunctive norms of visual communication on SNSs often emerge from individual-focused SNS affordances, encouraging self-centered visual sharing. Generally, SNSs are understood as sites of networked individualism where individuals relate to others while remaining focused on themselves. We examined the injunctive norms governing relationship visibility on SNSs, discussing how partners navigate the tensions between norms stemming from individual-focused SNS affordances and relational norms. We conducted 63 semi-structured pair and individual interviews with romantic partners (42 participants, 21 couples), using participatory visual elicitation techniques. In the attempt to balance individual autonomy with relational and audience expectations, we found that partners develop practices to navigate contrasting norms. Key norms concern the extent of shared visual cues, timing and selection of SNS spaces for couple pictures, volume of sharing, and rules for sensitive pictures to maintain privacy. We provide insights into the complex negotiations between individual-focused norms and relational norms of visual communication on SNSs.

In verschiedenen afrikanischen Kulturen ist die Diskussion über Sexualität typischerweise eher zurückhaltend. Aufgrund der vielfältigen und manchmal widersprüchlichen Erzählungen über Sexualität bleibt deren Erforschung ein sehr sensibles Terrain, das eine sorgfältige Auseinandersetzung mit historischen, soziokulturellen und religiösen Faktoren erfordert. In diesem Beitrag beleuchte ich die Forschung in Nigeria kritisch, wobei ich mich auf meine Erfahrungen bei der Untersuchung traditioneller Aphrodisiaka in der Stadt Ilorin stütze. Ich reflektiere die erkenntnistheoretischen Grundlagen dieser Arbeit, meine Position und Feldforschungserfahrungen sowie die Dilemmata, Herausforderungen und die Politik der Erforschung der Sexualität in Nigeria. Ich vertrete die Auffassung, dass die Komplexität der Identität und der Verkörperungen von Forschenden nicht als überflüssig betrachtet werden darf, sondern vielmehr auf legitime und produktive Weise berücksichtigt werden muss. Die Konzentration hierauf und meine Erfahrungen während der Feldforschung haben gezeigt, wie Forschende die Möglichkeit haben, einer qualitativen Studie Kontur zu geben, sie zu ergänzen und zu ihr beizutragen. Sie müssen sich ihrer selbst bewusst sein und diesen Prozess ständig reflexiv begleiten. Within various African cultures, discussion of sexuality is typically secretive and reticent. Because of the multiple and sometimes contradictory narratives about sexuality, researching it in this context remains a very sensitive and knitted terrain, requiring careful navigation of historical, sociocultural and religious factors. The state of such scholarship in Nigeria is here explored critically, drawing on my experience of studying traditional aphrodisiacs in Ilorin. In this article, I present a reflection on the epistemological grounding of that work, my positionality and fieldwork experience, as well as the dilemmas, challenges and the politics of researching sexuality in Nigeria. I argue that the complexity of a researcher's identity and embodiments is not to be treated as redundant; instead, it needs to be taken into account in legitimate and productive ways. Focusing on these elements and experiences during fieldwork revealed how researchers can have the opportunity to contour, compound and contribute to a qualitative study. Investigators must be self-aware and constantly reflexive through this process.

Forschungsdesigns erfordern Flexibilität. Wichtig ist aber, dass Anpassungen nicht immer ausschließlich mit Nachteilen verbunden sein müssen. In dieser Forschungsnotiz möchten wir unsere Überlegungen zu den Auswirkungen von COVID-19 auf die Durchführung von qualitativen Interviews mit irregulären Migrant*innen veranschaulichen. Die Ausführungen wurden in Anlehnung an eines unserer eigenen Projekte entwickelt, bei dem sich die Feldarbeit derzeit in der Planungsphase befindet. Aufgrund ihrer möglichen Relevanz für ähnliche Projekte möchten wir unsere methodischen Überlegungen teilen. Wir liefern Anmerkungen zur aktuellen Situation irregulärer Migrant*innen in verschiedenen (europäischen) Ländern sowie eine Einschätzung der methodischen Durchführbarkeit von qualitativen Face-to-Face-Interviews mit irregulären Migrant*innen und möglicher Alternativen zu dieser Methode (insbesondere verschiedener Formen von Ferninterviews). Abschließend kommen wir auf unsere Entscheidung zu sprechen, mit einem Mixed-Mode-Ansatz zu arbeiten, der es uns erlaubt, verschiedene Fernbefragungsmodi zu nutzen, und damit die nötige Flexibilität zur Anpassung an den Verlauf derartiger gesundheitlicher und gesellschaftlicher Krisen bietet.

Religion and sexual experience are deemed sensitive topics to research. I aim to elucidate how I used hairdressing as an activity during qualitative interviews to aid in researching the relationship between religious-cultural upbringing and women's sexual experiences in Northern Ireland. There has been little recognition of the subjective sexual experiences of adult women in Northern Ireland; this is partly due to the dominance of Roman Catholicism and Evangelical Fundamentalism's religious practices in the country and their promotion of morally conservative ideas around women's bodies and sexual activity. This, in turn, has allowed a moral, religious perspective on sexual activity to have a high level of significance for the individual in Northern Ireland and society, making it challenging to research. I will explore how \" doing hair\" during qualitative interviews can help to combat issues associated with researching sensitive topics using GOFFMAN's (1956) dramaturgical analysis and HOCHSCHILD's (1983) emotional labor concept. I argue that utilizing the routine performances between the hairdresser and client and \" flipping the script\" on the researcher/participant vs. hairdresser/client power relations can aid in the disclosure of the socially and culturally sensitive topics of religion and sexual experiences.

Web-based patient-completed clinical decision aids (CDAs) have the potential to reduce inefficient resource use and patient risk in acute and emergency settings while minimizing additional clinician time burdens. However, such interventions must be acceptable for use by their target audience-patients. The objective of this study is to assess acceptability and utility to patients of a novel online patient-completed CDA for the differential diagnosis of transient loss of consciousness (TLoC). Within a larger validation study of a patient-completed CDA, we conducted nested qualitative semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of 20 patients who used the CDA in the study and performed thematic analysis of interview transcripts. We identified 11 themes within the data: 3 addressing the content of the CDA, 3 addressing the online implementation, and 4 addressing usability and acceptability of the CDA. Respondents generally felt an online CDA was easy to complete and acceptable, though they felt that increased options to personalize descriptions of their experience would be helpful and offered guidance on how to make it a more useful resource for patients as well as clinicians. We present good practice points for the design of patient-completed online CDAs on the basis of our thematic analysis. Findings suggest that patient-completed CDAs may be accessible and feasible in acute and emergency settings, though further research is needed to explore their real-world usability. In designing such tools, clinicians should endeavor to maintain their accessibility for all relevant patient groups and to use them to provide direct patient benefit, as well as to support clinical decision-making, for example, through simultaneous patient-directed outputs.