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Does it count as plagiarism if a student pays a professional transcription service to transcribe an audio recording of a social science interview/focus group for the appendix of their written assignment?
Note that the appendix is not graded as part of the assignment.
What is important here is to check the experimental protocol for any data protection/privacy issues.
Because you conducted an experiment involving human subjects, there should have been an approved protocol that tells you how the data can be handled. It is important to see if it can be sent to a third-party service, and what precautions are necessary.
In some cases, the recordings have been anonymized and nothing sensitive is discussed, so it may be OK. On the other hand, if there is personally identifiable information, or sensitive medical information is disclosed, laws, like HIPAA apply and special agreements and arrangements are necessary with the transcription service.
I doubt that it would be plagiarism per se, as long as the student cites the source. If you cite something properly, it isn't plagiarism. If you quote the work, make it clear that you are quoting. Make it clear that both the ideas and the words come from the cited source.
It might, possibly, be copyright infringement, depending on who has rights to the interview and whether/how it is licensed. You are copying something, even if changing the media and it might be covered or not. One difficulty here is that you might want to copy the thing in whole, rather than just excerpts, for which different rules might apply.
But a professor might still consider it to be academic misconduct, depending on the rules set for the course. The professor might be expecting you to make the effort at transcription, for example. To know the rules, you need to check with the professor.
Note also that the fact that you paid a service for the transcription has nothing to do with plagiarism. The source of the interview would be the issue, not the mechanics of transcription.
