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While there is a small, growing literature considering the psychological safety of researchers, little attention has been paid in the qualitative literature to the wellbeing of transcriptionists. Transcriptionists play an integral and essential role in qualitative research but are often overlooked in terms of the emotional impact of the work. Using grounded theory methodology, transcriptionists were interviewed to ascertain their experiences of their role. Findings indicated that transcriptionists experienced emotional distress and feelings of helplessness. Analysis of the data demonstrated that transcriptionists did have some coping strategies, but also expressed an additional need to discuss their feelings. Furthermore analysis revealed that the lack of safeguarding protocols for the profession made the role even more challenging. The emergent core category identified was that there was a risk of secondary traumatic stress for transcriptionists. Recommendations were made for additional safeguarding of transcriptionists through the introduction of a research team approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, the safety of research participants has taken precedence in health research. More recently, however, in response to anecdotal reports, there is growing concern for researcher safety, which has resulted in policy development. Also, there is a small body of empirical discussion emerging. In this article, we present a case study example of a particular incident that happened to one of the authors during the course of data collection. We present this as a case study using two sources of data to support the narrative. We utilise extracts from the original interview in which the threat to safety occurred, and this is supplemented by an interview with the transcriptionist who transcribed the threatening interview. Using thematic analysis, we found three key themes from the data: physical threat, emotional responses, and managing risk. Our findings suggest that despite reflectively considering and adhering to valuable protocols relating to risk assessment, unprecedented events may still occur. We recommend, therefore, that research teams develop strategies to manage the implications and impact of research involvement to maintain a healthy research team. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]