Standards

Research governance framework 

The Gambling Commission's Research Governance Framework.

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Published
30 April 2026

Last updated
30 April 2026 - Changes

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Contents

• Research governance framework 

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• Introduction
• • Research at the Gambling Commission
  • The Research Governance Framework
  • Developing and updating the research governance framework
• Ethical gambling research
• • Introduction to ethical gambling research
  • Core research principles and guidelines for ethical gambling research
  • Research involving AI
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Research misconduct
• Ethical approval for gambling research with human participants
• • Which projects require ethical approval
  • General considerations for ethical approval in gambling research
  • The ethical approval process
• The peer review process
• Roles and responsibilities
• Other external research involvement
• Research data governance
• • General principles of research data governance and research data safeguarding
  • What documents are required?
  • Data sharing
• Dissemination of research
• Monitoring, review and data corrections
• Appendices
• • Appendix 1: Ethics Checklist for projects requiring full Ethical Approval
  • Appendix 2: Data management plan checklist checklist
  • Appendix 3: Peer review checklist
  • Appendix 4: Research misconduct

1.2 - The Research Governance Framework

Research governance is designed to ensure that the public can have confidence in the quality of our research, as outlined by the Government standards for analysis (opens in new tab) and the AQuA book (opens in new tab). Research is defined as all work of a research and investigation-based nature with the intent to generate evidence and analysis of gambling related themes and topics that includes research with human participants and research involving data about humans. For the purpose of this Research Governance Framework, research does not include:

• internal engagement with stakeholders and staff on organisational and strategic matters
• our enforcement, regulatory and operational casework.

This framework is based on the Concordat for Research Integrity (opens in new tab) (See also Guidance to implement the Concordat to Support Research Integrity within government (opens in new tab)) and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) ethics and integrity principles and guidelines.

We have also consulted the UK’s Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) Code of Practice for Research (opens in new tab).

Our official statistics are subject to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)’s Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab) which sets the standards that producers of official statistics should commit to, based around the 3 central pillars of trustworthiness, quality and value. In line with the code’s key principles, the Gambling Commission’s official statistics need to reflect the public interest as outlined in our public commitments, while protecting the confidentiality of individuals and of business information. It is our duty to ensure that our statistics are robust and reliable, based on the right data sources, with transparent judgements about definitions, methods, strengths and limitations of the statistics. We are committed to making our statistics equally available to all and publish our data in different formats to meet different user needs.

Further information on our statistics on the UK Data Service can be found in the Availability of research data on the UK Data Service. Finally, we have developed a user engagement statement to connect to users so their needs can be anticipated, and statistics kept up to date.

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Developing and updating the research governance framework

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Last updated: 30 April 2026

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