How to use this guide
Use the recommendations below to prepare a clearer brief, compare quotations on the same basis and identify decisions that should be resolved before production begins.
This guide provides general project-planning information. Requirements imposed by a court, embassy, regulator, receiving institution, venue or technology platform should always be confirmed directly with that authority.
Choose clean or full verbatim
The correct level depends on reading, evidence, coding or quotation.
Decision to record: How does this point apply to your audience, language pair, final use and approval process?
Define speaker labels
Names, anonymous IDs and role labels serve different needs.
Decision to record: How does this point apply to your audience, language pair, final use and approval process?
Set timestamp rules
Intervals, speaker changes and unclear passages may use different time codes.
Decision to record: How does this point apply to your audience, language pair, final use and approval process?
Separate translation decisions
A translated transcript can hide language choices unless the workflow records them.
Decision to record: How does this point apply to your audience, language pair, final use and approval process?
When professional support becomes important
Seek a properly briefed language professional when the communication affects rights, safety, consent, money, institutional acceptance, research validity or a large public audience. Urgency does not remove the need to confirm language variety, intended use and review responsibility.