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Oral histories can remain as recordings of oral stories, or they can be transcribed into oral history transcripts. For more information about recording and transcribing oral histories go to: Recording and transcribing oral histories.

Transcripts that are not intended for publication in a book can be an absolutely verbatim transcript of the oral history, or a slightly edited version.

Transcripts that are intended for publication – for example, as a book of oral histories, or as a life story that is the storyteller’s verbal story turned into a book – require editing, as follows.

• The transcripts are edited to make them clearer and easier to read.
• Once you edit the transcripts they are no longer simply transcripts, but  “edited transcripts” that can then be compiled into a draft manuscript.
• When transcripts have been compiled into one manuscript, the editor needs to ensure the stories are presented clearly and in the right order, and this may require more editing, which we call “structural” or “developmental” editing.

Note: while author the views and information expressed in this article reflect those of the author, Sally-Anne Watson Kane, and her usual practice. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Oral History Australia or its members. 

Editing oral history transcripts for publication

If publication is the intended purpose of the transcripts, the editor of the oral history transcripts should go through the transcripts with the authors – or, as we like to call them, the storytellers – of the oral history, to:

• ensure it is an accurate representation of what they said.
• confirm that to their knowledge, the information in the transcript is correct.
• clarify any words or phrases that are not clear and edit in those corrections.
• give the storyteller the opportunity to add to the transcript or to delete any parts they now don’t wish to include.

• confirm whether the author wishes to be identified as the author of the oral history that has been documented and edited.
• confirm the potential use of each transcript; for example, is it a record for family use only? Or, will it be provided to the local oral history archives/museum? And/or, will it be published as an article, or  in a book?
• confirm whether the storyteller will remain the copyright owner of the transcript after publication in whatever form they have agreed to.
• document an agreement/contract between the storytellers and the project manager or person editing and responsible for publishing the oral histories.

Note: sometimes it is not possible to go back and re-interview the storyteller. In those cases the editor editing an oral history collection for publication needs to be very careful when editing the oral histories to absolutely retain the storyteller’s own voice, and they may need to delete ambiguous sentences.

Copyright and oral histories

Initially, the copyright owner of an oral history is always the author – that is, the person who is telling the story. Speaking from my experience mainly as an editor and producer of self-published books, my ethic is that the copyright ownership of the transcript of that story should always remain in the author’s name wherever possible. However, this view is different from the view of some professional oral historians.

The only time I would encourage a storyteller to give the copyright of their  story to someone else would be in the following situations.

• The storyteller may wish the copyright ownership to be held by another person (for example, a publisher) because it is more practical for them. For example, the storyteller may live in another country and may be difficult to contact.
• If the oral history is one of a collection of stories to be published in a book, the publisher/self-publisher may encourage the different storytellers to give their copyright to either a suitable organisation that could act as an “umbrella” for those individuals, or to the publisher.
• Importantly, if an author gives the copyright of their oral history to another person, organisation or publisher, the  copyright owner of the storyteller’s story should act responsibly and ethically in regard to how that story is published or republished, and keep the author informed of those uses. If there are any proceeds of sale, or profits, the copyright owner needs to ensure those profits make their way back to the storytellers whose stories they are.

For more information about the ethics around the copyright ownership of oral histories or transcripts of oral histories, go to: Oral history interviews: ethical and legal issues,  Who owns story?, and  The Oral History Handbook (Australia).

Editing in consultation with the storyteller

Sometimes, seeing their comments in print may prompt the storyteller to realise they’ve made a mistake about a name, date or place; or that they don’t wish to include certain comments, after all, because they may offend someone or even endanger themselves or another person.

In my view (which reflects my experience as a documenter of oral histories,  editor and book producer), a storyteller who has told an oral history should always be given the opportunity to afterwards edit their story, in consultation with the scribe, editor or project manager.

Some editors can edit the transcript, which we would now call the manuscript, while in discussions with the storyteller; others would take notes or record the session then apply the corrections and changes afterwards.

If there have been a number of corrections or additions or deletions made by the storyteller, after the transcript has been edited the editor needs to take the edited draft back to the author again and repeat the storyteller-editing-consultation process.

The editor should consult with the storyteller as many times as is necessary until the storyteller is satisfied that the manuscript is now correct enough for publication to the intended audience – whether that be family members only, or the general public.

Note: after the storyteller is happy with the story, if the manuscript is intended for publication to the general public it will need to be copy edited (minor changes only). 

What if it is impossible to consult with the storyteller about their story?

Sometimes, it’s not possible to take the transcripts back to the storytellers of the oral histories and edit it in consultation with them, prior to publishing those stories, because:

• they may live in another country and/or a very remote area
• they may even live in a country at war and cannot be contacted
• they may have passed away.

If the oral histories have been recorded in those sort of circumstances, it’s essential that the interviewer has asked the storytellers, at the time of  recording the oral histories, for permission to publish their stories; and that the storytellers have decided on  issues of copyright and ownership.

When for whatever reason it is impossible for the project manager or editor to edit the oral history transcripst in consultation with the storytellers, but heavy editing is required to make the transcripts readable, the editor should:

• fact-check any information that needs to be verified.
• include footnotes (or other notes methods) to clarify the meaning when required.
• edit the transcripts when necessary to clarify the meaning.
• delete any comments the editor feels the interviewee would probably have decided against including, had they been given the opportunity to review the transcript
• delete any content the editor feels may impact the storytellers’ or others’  safety or personal privacy, or liability (if there is any defamatory content).

Relevant links

• Editing oral history publications
• Editing and proofreading in general
• Recording and transcribing oral histories

Sally-Anne Watson Kane has recorded, scribed, edited and compiled several publications of oral histories, since 1996. She established On Time Typing in 2002 then expanded her business into On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading, also trading as On Time Typing Books and Life Stories.

Image: taken by Sally-Anne Watson Kane, in Egypt, in the 1980s.