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

3.1 - Which projects require ethical approval

Research projects that only use secondary data (anonymised) do not require ethical approval. They should follow the general principles of this Research Governance Framework and be based on robust data governance. If they result in an externally published output, this should be peer reviewed. A risk assessment is not required for such projects but may be produced if the Research Manager deems it necessary.

Research projects that involve human participants or non-anonymised data collected from human participants will require ethical approval. The following sections outline general considerations for ethical approval and the ethical approval process itself.

The following sections outline general considerations for ethical approval and the ethical approval process itself.

Next section
General considerations for ethical approval in gambling research

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Last updated: 30 April 2026

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