ISSR

Miscellaneous

Survey Research

• The UMass-Boston campus has a Center for Survey Research (CSR). Services include:
  • study design and sampling
  • survey instrument development and evaluation (including focus groups, cognitive interviews, and pretests)
  • data collection (including telephone, in-person, and mail and web interviews, as well as specialized survey data collection procedures such as interactive voice recognition [IVR] and audio-CASI)
  • foreign language interviewing
  • coding and data entry
  • data analysis and reporting
  • consultation
• For survey design software go here.
• The Amazon Mechanical Turk service provides low-cost access to a pool of subjects to take surveys and participate in randomized experiments.

Transcription 

On campus:

• ISSR has an Olympus digital transcriber kit and foot pedal, as well as a Sanyo transcription machine and foot pedal that uses tapes.  Please contact Karen Mason to reserve.
• The UMass Translation Center offers some translation services.

Off-campus resources used by members of the UMass community:

• Fantastic Transcripts
• LR Transcripts. Email Lynn at lrtranscripts@comcast.net
• Arnell Transcription Services - Luann@Arnellofficeservices.com
• Free software: PRAAT
• The Amazon Mechanical Turk service provides low-cost access to a pool of volunteers who transcribe audio and visual materials. Instructions on how to do this can be found here
• Excellent advice for how to self-transcribe interviews from an SBS grad alum: 

I used a three-step process to dictate, transcribe, then edit my transcripts. It saved me time and reduced the repetitive stress of typing. Here's a quick how-to:

1. Use headphones to listen to the audio recording of your interview/focus group on an MP3player (like an iPod shuffle), press pause when you hear a relevant passage, then repeat it out loud into an audio recorder, preferably set to "skip silence." Repeat until your recording is complete. You should now have a new audio file with your voice "quoting" the original recording. I used the HT Professional Recorder to record my own voice. It's a $7 application for the iPhone.

2. Load the new audio file onto your Mac and transcribe it using a software application trained to recognize your voice. I used Scribe. Not cheap ($150), but about 90% accurate.

3. Now, to catch and correct any errors, listen to your new audio file while proofreading your transcription, and presto! I used Express Scribe (the free version) and programmed key-command short-cuts to slow, quicken, or pause the audio file as I made corrections.

Places to Work

See this page.

Other resources:

The CTFD  runs several writing retreats for faculty, both during the academic year and winter and summer breaks. See details.