What Counts As Data in Qualitative Research

According to the LSE Impact blog post (10 August 2026), qualitative data includes transcripts and also contextual signals such as silences, pauses, spatial arrangements and fieldnotes (LSE Impact).

• The LSE Impact post was published on 10 August 2026 and lists at least six non-transcript data types researchers should treat as evidence when recorded and compared.
• The LSE Impact post is 7, 062 characters long as archived on 10 August 2026, indicating a detailed methodological argument rather than a short commentary.
• When qualitative evidence from interviews is treated only as text, according to LSE Impact (10 August 2026), key contextual signals such as repeated hesitations or absences can be lost unless fieldnotes and audit trails are preserved.

The LSE Impact blog post argued that qualitative research expands what counts as data beyond transcripts, and it published that argument on 10 August 2026.

According to Sezai Doruk Soyata writing for LSE Impact (10 August 2026), an interview should be treated as a social encounter, not just a container of answers: "an interview is not simply a container for answers."

According to LSE Impact (10 August 2026), researchers should record and compare contextual details such as pauses, hesitations, spatial arrangements, informal conversations and fieldnotes so those details can become analytic evidence rather than private impressions.

Qualitative researchers should treat observational notes and speech features as evidence and explicitly document how they were collected, according to LSE Impact (10 August 2026).

According to LSE Impact (10 August 2026), UX researchers who rely on interviews should preserve nonverbal cues and the researcher's fieldnotes because these cues can explain recurring patterns that transcripts alone cannot capture.

• Researchers should create audit trails that describe when and how fieldnotes were written, according to LSE Impact (10 August 2026).
• Research teams should decide which contextual signals are recorded, why they are analytic, and how they will be anonymised before analysis, because transparency matters even when raw data cannot be shared, according to LSE Impact (10 August 2026).
• When sensitive topics prevent public data sharing, researchers should document what cannot be shared and why, according to LSE Impact (10 August 2026).

The LSE Impact blog post (10 August 2026) reminds researchers that what counts as data in qualitative research goes beyond transcripts to include silences, spatial arrangements and fieldnotes when those materials are systematically recorded and compared.

Practically, teams should build audit trails, timestamp and code contextual signals, and decide ahead of time how to anonymise sensitive material, consistent with the LSE Impact recommendations.

If you want an AI-enabled workflow that preserves contextual signals while keeping provenance and privacy controls, see Evidano’s features for project-level ingestion, transcription and audit logs, and speech-to-text for capturing hesitations and timestamps.

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