Call Recording for Researchers (2026 Guide)

You scheduled 30 semi-structured interviews for your dissertation. The first three went well — you took detailed notes, captured the key themes, wrote up your reflections the same evening. By interview seven, your notes are thinner. By interview fifteen, you realize you wrote “interesting point about organizational culture” without recording what the point actually was. Your committee asks for verbatim quotes. You don’t have them.

This is not a hypothetical. It is the most common data quality failure in qualitative phone interview research. And it is entirely avoidable.

This guide covers the equipment, ethics, and workflow for recording phone interviews in academic research — with specific attention to IRB compliance, data security, and the practical reality that most researchers are working with a limited budget and no IT department.

Why Researchers Record Phone Interviews

If you are conducting qualitative research, the case for audio recording is methodological, not optional.

Verbatim Data for Coding and Analysis

Thematic analysis, grounded theory, interpretive phenomenological analysis, framework analysis — every major qualitative methodology requires working from verbatim transcripts. Field notes and paraphrased summaries introduce researcher bias at the data collection stage, before analysis even begins. Recording gives you the raw data. Everything else is interpretation.

Accuracy That Notes Cannot Provide

A one-hour interview generates roughly 7,000-10,000 words of dialogue. Even experienced researchers capture only 20-30% of content through real-time note-taking — and that 20-30% is filtered through whatever the researcher found salient in the moment. Recordings capture everything, including the hesitations, qualifications, and digressions that often contain the richest data.

Member Checking and Participant Verification

If your methodology includes member checking — sharing findings back with participants for validation — you need an accurate record of what was said. Sending a participant your paraphrased interpretation of their words and asking “did I get this right?” is a different exercise than sending them a transcript of their actual words.

Audit Trail for Research Rigor

External examiners, peer reviewers, and dissertation committees expect an audit trail. Audio recordings and their corresponding transcripts demonstrate that your findings are grounded in actual participant data, not reconstructed from memory. For funded research, many grant agencies now require data management plans that specify how primary data (including recordings) will be stored and preserved.

Freeing the Researcher to Listen

A practical benefit that gets less attention in methods textbooks: when you are not frantically writing, you can actually listen. You can follow up on unexpected responses, probe deeper, and be present in the conversation. The quality of the interview itself improves when the researcher is not simultaneously acting as a stenographer.

IRB Requirements for Recording Phone Interviews

Any research involving human subjects that contributes to generalizable knowledge requires IRB review — and audio recording adds specific requirements to your protocol. The details vary by institution, but the core elements are consistent across most U.S. research universities.

Informed Consent for Audio Recording

Your IRB protocol must describe how you will obtain informed consent for recording. For phone interviews, most IRBs accept verbal consent using an approved script, since obtaining a signed consent form from a phone participant is impractical. The standard approach is:

1. Email the consent form to the participant before the interview, giving them time to review it
2. Read a verbal consent script at the start of the call, covering all required elements
3. Record the participant’s verbal agreement as the first portion of the audio file
4. Document the consent in your research records (date, time, participant ID)

Most IRBs will grant a waiver of signed (documented) consent for phone interviews under 45 CFR 46.117. This regulation provides specific criteria for waiving written consent — your IRB will determine whether your study qualifies. The general rationale is that requiring a signed document may actually increase the risk of a confidentiality breach by creating a paper record linking the participant to the research.

Required Elements of a Consent Script

Your verbal consent script needs to cover:

• The purpose and nature of the study
• That participation is voluntary and the participant may withdraw at any time without penalty
• That the interview is being audio recorded
• How the recording will be stored and who will have access
• When the recording will be destroyed
• Any risks and how they will be mitigated (typically through de-identification)
• Contact information for the researcher and the IRB office

Verbal vs. Written Consent

For phone interviews, verbal consent is the norm. Many university IRB offices recognize that oral consent is appropriate when research involves minimal risk and the only contact is by phone. What matters is that the consent process covers all the same elements as a written form — the medium of consent is secondary to its content.

A Note on Recording Consent for the Recording

There is a useful circularity here: you need consent to record, but you also want to record the consent. The standard practice is to begin recording, read your consent script, ask the participant to confirm their agreement verbally, and then proceed with the interview. If a participant declines recording, you stop the recorder and proceed with notes only (or end the interview, per your protocol).

Why Local Recording Matters for Research Data

This is where equipment choices intersect with ethics approval. IRBs are increasingly scrutinizing how and where research data is processed and stored — and cloud-based recording tools are becoming a liability.

The Problem with Cloud-Based Recording

Apps like Otter.ai, TapeACall, and Rev send your audio through third-party servers for processing. For research interviews, this creates several problems:

• Third-party data access. Your participant data passes through servers you do not control. Some transcription services share data with AI training pipelines or third-party labeling providers — a use your participants did not consent to.
• IRB scrutiny. Some university IRBs now treat AI transcription tools as “engaged in human subjects research” when they process participant data, requiring IRB review of the tool itself. Others have restricted or banned specific tools over consent law concerns.
• Consent complications. Researchers using AI transcription services may need to obtain explicit informed consent from participants for that specific data processing — adding another element to an already complex consent process.
• Legal exposure. Cloud recording tools have faced lawsuits over recording private conversations without all-party consent and using them for AI training. Researchers in all-party consent states face particular risk.

Local Recording Eliminates These Risks

RECAP S2 is a hardware audio adapter that records both sides of a phone call by routing the audio signal to your computer. The audio never touches a server. There is no app on your phone. No account to create. No third party in the chain. No apps, no batteries, no subscriptions.

For IRB purposes, this is significant: you maintain complete custody of your research data from the moment it is created. Your data management plan can state truthfully that audio recordings are captured locally and stored on researcher-controlled hardware. No caveats about third-party processing. No links to corporate privacy policies that can change without notice.

Equipment Setup for Research Interviews

The recording setup for research interviews is straightforward and inexpensive.

Hardware

• RECAP S2 ($99, one-time) — connects between your phone and headset, outputs audio to your computer
• Your phone — any phone with a 3.5mm headset jack, or a USB-C/Lightning to 3.5mm adapter (compatible adapters)
• Your computer — any PC or Mac with a microphone input or USB audio interface
• Headset — any standard wired headset with a 3.5mm plug

Software

Audacity (free, open-source) is the standard recommendation for research recording. It records directly to a local file, has no cloud component, and is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. For a detailed walkthrough, see our recording software guide.

Why Audacity specifically:

• Records to local WAV files (uncompressed, archival quality)
• Label tracks let you mark segments during the interview (e.g., “key quote at 23:15”)
• No account, no login, no telemetry
• Widely used in academic research — your methods section can cite it without explaining what it is

Signal Path

Participant's phone -> cell network -> your phone -> RECAP S2 -> your PC (Audacity) -> local WAV file

No cloud. No intermediary. No app on your phone listening in. If you want to automatically record every phone call for a high-volume study, RECAP supports that workflow too.

File Naming Convention

Use participant IDs, not names:

P012_20260128_interview01.wav
P012_20260128_interview01_notes.txt

Never use participant names in file names. This is a basic de-identification practice, but it is worth stating explicitly because it is one of the most common data management mistakes in student research.

Backup

Copy files to an encrypted external drive after each interview. Do not rely solely on your laptop’s internal storage. Use hardware encryption (e.g., an IronKey or similar FIPS-compliant drive) if your IRB requires it. Keep the backup drive in a separate physical location from your primary device.

Transcription Workflow

Once you have clean audio files, you need transcripts. The three main approaches, in order of data security:

1. Local AI Transcription with Whisper (Free, Fully Offline)

OpenAI’s Whisper is a free, open-source speech recognition model that runs entirely on your computer. No audio leaves your machine. For researchers, this is the gold standard for balancing cost, accuracy, and data security.

• Cost: Free
• Accuracy: High on clear recordings; lower on noisy or heavily accented speech (expect 85-95% depending on audio quality and accents)
• Speed: A one-hour interview transcribes in 2-10 minutes depending on your hardware
• Privacy: Completely local — no data leaves your computer
• Tools: noScribe provides a GUI with speaker identification, built on Whisper

RECAP recordings are clean line-level audio, which helps Whisper perform at the higher end of its accuracy range. That said, Whisper can hallucinate during silent passages or with heavy background noise. Always review transcripts against the audio, particularly for key quotes you plan to use in publications.

2. Human Transcription (Highest Accuracy, Highest Cost)

Services like Rev offer human transcription — check rev.com for current per-minute pricing. Accuracy is typically 98-99%. If your budget allows it and your IRB approves sending recordings to a third-party transcription service, this produces the most reliable transcripts.

Note: you will need to address third-party data access in your IRB protocol and consent form if you use any external transcription service.

3. Cloud AI Transcription (Fast, Inexpensive, Privacy Trade-off)

Cloud AI transcription services are fast and affordable. But they require uploading your recordings to external servers, which raises every concern outlined in the data security section above.

If your IRB permits cloud transcription, disclose the specific tool and its privacy policy in your consent form and protocol.

Cost Comparison

For a 30-interview study with hour-long interviews, Whisper saves thousands of dollars compared to human transcription — and keeps all data local.

Data Management and Security

Your IRB protocol should specify your data management plan. Here are the standard requirements:

Encryption

Audio files and transcripts should be stored on encrypted volumes. On Mac, enable FileVault. On Windows, use BitLocker. For portable storage, use hardware-encrypted drives. Many IRBs require AES-256 encryption.

Storage Duration

Follow your IRB-approved retention period. The typical requirement is to retain data for 3-7 years after study completion (or after the last publication based on the data), then securely destroy all recordings and identifiable transcripts.

De-Identification of Transcripts

Replace participant names, locations, employers, and other identifying information with pseudonyms or codes in all transcripts. Work from de-identified transcripts for analysis; keep the original recordings and the identification key in separate, secure locations.

Secure Deletion

When your retention period ends, do not simply move files to the trash. If your drive is encrypted with FileVault (Mac) or BitLocker (Windows), deleting files normally is sufficient — the underlying storage is encrypted, so deleted data cannot be recovered without the encryption key. For unencrypted drives, use a tool like shred on Linux, or on Windows use sdelete from Microsoft Sysinternals. For physical drives containing particularly sensitive data, physical destruction is the most certain method.

Sample Verbal Consent Script for Phone Interviews

Adapt this to your specific study. Your IRB office should review and approve your final script.

Researcher: Before we begin, I need to go through the consent process for this study. I emailed you the consent information sheet on [date] — did you have a chance to review it?

[Participant confirms]

Researcher: I want to confirm a few things. This interview is part of a research study on [brief description of study topic] being conducted through [university/department]. The purpose of this interview is to understand your experiences with [topic].

Your participation is entirely voluntary. You can skip any question you prefer not to answer, and you can end the interview at any time without any negative consequences. You may also withdraw from the study at any point after the interview — if you do, your recording and any associated data will be destroyed and will not be used in the research.

With your permission, I would like to audio record this interview. The recording will be used to create a transcript for analysis. Only members of the research team will have access to the recording and transcript. Your name and any identifying information will be removed from the transcript.

The recording will be stored on an encrypted device and will be destroyed [timeframe per your IRB protocol, e.g., “three years after the completion of the study”].

If you have any questions or concerns after this interview, you can contact me at [email] or the IRB office at [phone/email].

Do you agree to participate in this study? [Wait for response.]

Do you agree to have this interview audio recorded? [Wait for response.]

Thank you. I am now starting the recording. Today is [date], and this is interview [number] with participant [ID number — not name].

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use my phone’s built-in recording for research interviews?

Some modern phones offer built-in call recording, but these features typically play an audible announcement (“This call is being recorded”) that you cannot customize, compress the audio, and store recordings in formats that may be backed up to cloud storage automatically. For research, you need control over the audio file from the moment it is created, with no cloud sync. RECAP gives you a clean audio file routed directly to your computer.

Does RECAP work with WhatsApp, Signal, or Zoom Phone calls?

Yes. RECAP captures any audio that passes through your phone’s headset jack. If you can hear it in your headset, RECAP outputs it. This includes cellular calls, VoIP, WhatsApp, Signal, FaceTime Audio, and any other calling app.

Will my IRB approve this setup?

RECAP is a hardware device that routes audio to your computer — there is no software, no account, and no third-party data processing involved. This is the simplest possible recording setup to describe in an IRB protocol because the data chain is entirely under researcher control. Most IRBs will find this far easier to approve than any cloud-based alternative.

How good is the audio quality for transcription?

RECAP outputs a clean line-level audio signal. This is significantly better than speakerphone recordings, phone mic recordings, or compressed VoIP captures. Both human transcriptionists and AI tools like Whisper produce more accurate transcripts when working from clean source audio. Garbage in, garbage out — and RECAP gives you clean input.

Do I need separate consent for recording and for the research itself?

Best practice is to obtain consent for both in a single process but with distinct questions. Your consent script should cover study participation first, then ask separately about audio recording. Some participants may agree to participate but decline recording — your protocol should specify how you will handle that (typically, proceed with notes only).

What are the limitations of RECAP for research use?

RECAP requires a wired headset and a computer running recording software — it is not a standalone recorder. Modern phones without a 3.5mm headset jack need a compatible adapter. You will also need to manage your own recording setup (starting/stopping Audacity, monitoring levels). For researchers who want a fully automated, hands-off solution, this requires some initial configuration — see our auto-record guide.

The Setup

A complete research interview recording system:

• RECAP S2: $99 (one-time)
• Audacity: Free
• Whisper / noScribe: Free
• Encrypted external drive: modest cost

Total: under $200. No subscriptions. No cloud dependencies. No third-party data processors to disclose in your IRB protocol.

Your participants trusted you with their words. Keep that data where it belongs — on your hardware, under your control.

Get RECAP S2 for $99 at recapmycalls.com