Where to publish gambling research
Twenty journals that publish gambling research, compared on the things that decide a submission: whether you can publish without paying, how long the paper can be, who reviews it, where it is indexed, and what ethics and data statements it demands.
Four things decide most submissions.
Fees are rarely the barrier. Almost every relevant journal is hybrid: the subscription route costs nothing, and the article-processing charge (roughly $2,500 to $5,000) applies only if you choose open access. Two good journals are diamond open access, free to publish and free to read: Critical Gambling Studies and the Journal of Financial Therapy. The exceptions are fully open-access titles with no free route: the Journal of Behavioral Addictions (about €1,400, and the highest-impact journal in the field), Addictive Behaviors Reports, and the JMIR, Frontiers and BMC families. The Journal of Gambling Issues, historically free, became a hybrid journal on July 1, 2026 (APC CAD $2,500); its fee page describes a subscription route without stating that it is free, so confirm with the editor before submitting.
Ethics approval is the real gate. The Springer titles (Journal of Gambling Studies, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, Clinical Social Work Journal), Journal of Gambling Issues, Qualitative Health Research and Cognitive and Behavioral Practice require an ethics-approval statement for anything involving human participants or their data, and Journal of Gambling Studies states that case reports need approval and that retrospective approval usually cannot be obtained. Studies with no human participants (platform audits, content analyses, public search data, reviews, conceptual papers) avoid the gate. Consented single-case studies are safest at Clinical Case Studies, which accepts a "not applicable" statement plus consent to publish, and at the Journal of Financial Therapy, which states no IRB policy. See the guide for unaffiliated researchers on getting review without a university.
Word budgets are tight. Journal of Gambling Studies caps original research and reviews at 4,000 words; Addictive Behaviors at 3,500 (short communications 2,000); Addiction at 3,500 for observational reports and 4,500 for mixed methods; IJMHA allows 6,000; Journal of Gambling Issues 6,500 (reviews 8,000); Critical Gambling Studies 5,000 to 8,000.
Disclose gambling-related interests. Every journal below requires a competing-interests statement, and several (Addiction, the Springer titles, Critical Gambling Studies) ask specifically about gambling-industry ties within the past three years. Undisclosed interests are grounds for correction or retraction; disclose and move on.
The journals
Impact factors are as reported on journal pages (marked 2025) or by aggregators, and are approximate. Taylor & Francis, APA and Wiley author pages block automated checking, so their limits are marked unverified; each takes two minutes to confirm in a browser.
| Journal (publisher) | Free route | Article types and limits | Review | Impact and indexing | Ethics and other requirements | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journal of Gambling Studies (Springer) | Yes, subscription route (OA APC about $3,390) | Original research and reviews 4,000 words; commentaries 1,500; abstract 150 to 250; APA 7 | Double-blind | JIF 2.4 (2025); MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SSCI, Scopus | Ethics approval for any human data, including case reports; data-availability statement mandatory; EQUATOR checklists (STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, COREQ); ORCID recommended | The field's default venue; MEDLINE indexing reaches clinicians |
| International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction (Springer) | Yes (OA APC £2,790 / $4,290) | Regular, review, brief report, clinical case study, commentary, letter; 6,000 words; abstract about 150 | Not stated; 6-day median first decision | JIF 2.8 (2025); PsycINFO, SSCI, Scopus; not MEDLINE | Ethics approval including case reports; consent; reporting guidelines; data deposit encouraged | Room for mixed-methods papers |
| International Gambling Studies (Taylor & Francis) | Yes, Open Select (APC not retrievable; no waivers on hybrid titles) | Not verified; check the author page | Not stated | JIF 2.1; Scopus; not MEDLINE | T&F standard policies | Policy and regulation are its core |
| Journal of Gambling Issues (CDS Press) | Hybrid since July 1, 2026; APC CAD 2,500; free subscription route not stated, confirm with the editor | Original and policy 6,500; review 8,000; brief report 900; opinion 2,500; letter 400; clinical papers and first-person accounts (no limit stated) | Double-blind | ESCI, Scopus, PsycINFO; SJR Q3 | Documented institutional approval for human studies; funding and COI statement; CC BY-ND | Policy papers, clinical papers, scoping reviews |
| Critical Gambling Studies (University of Alberta Libraries) | Yes, diamond OA, never any charge | Original 5,000 to 8,000 including references; commentaries 1,000 to 2,000; APA 7 | Double-anonymous; about 52 weeks to publication | Scopus, DOAJ; no JIF | COI and 3-year funding statement; no industry-funded work; AI disclosure; ORCID where possible | Slow; strong for critical and policy framings |
| Addictive Behaviors (Elsevier) | Yes, no fee on the subscription route (APC $4,670) | Full 3,500; short communication 2,000; case studies 2,500; systematic review 4,000; mini-review 2,500; commentary 800 (email the editor first); 250-word abstract; highlights | Double-anonymized; median 3 days to first decision, 54 days review | JIF 4.1; MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus | Data must be deposited in a repository and cited; consent for case studies; AI-use statement | Short communications are a fast route for brief quantitative papers |
| Addiction (SSA / Wiley) | Yes (APC about $4,170) | Short report 2,000; observational 3,500; mixed methods 4,500; review about 4,500; letter 500; Data Insight 2,000; no single case reports; commentaries commissioned | Single-blind; 6 to 8 weeks | JIF about 5.9; MEDLINE, SSCI | IRB and consent; named reporting guidelines; data sharing expected; preregistration expected (unregistered analyses treated as exploratory); ORCID required; declare gambling-industry links within 3 years | Letters are refereed and unsolicited letters are accepted |
| Addiction Research & Theory (Taylor & Francis) | Yes, Open Select | Original, reviews, commentaries; Registered Reports via PCI RR; limits not verified | Not stated | JIF 2.0 (2024); SSCI; not MEDLINE | T&F standard | Theory papers; Registered Reports |
| Psychology of Addictive Behaviors (APA) | Yes, APA hybrid | Full, brief reports, commentaries, registered reports; limits not verified | Masked (confirm) | JIF 2.7 (2024); MEDLINE, SSCI, PsycINFO | APA JARS reporting standards; open-science badges | |
| Journal of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) | Yes (APC about $2,000; page may be stale) | Original 3,500; review 5,000; case report 1,500 with 1 table, 1 figure, 20 references; commentary 1,500; letter 500 | Single-blind | JIF about 3.2; MEDLINE, PsycINFO | Consent for all case reports, documentation kept 7 years; IRB statement; CARE | Clinician audience; few gambling papers in 2024 to 2026 |
| Cognitive and Behavioral Practice (Elsevier / ABCT) | Yes (APC $3,600) | Research reports, case series, case studies, clinical commentaries (10 pages), treatment development, reviews; 35 pages total | Double-anonymized; 61 days to decision; 20% acceptance | JIF 3.2; PsycINFO, SSCI, Scopus (MEDLINE listed, verify) | Ethics-committee approval; CARE required for case reports, COREQ/SRQR for qualitative; case subjects read and agree to the article; 3-year COI | Ran a 2025 special issue on CBT for gambling disorder |
| Clinical Case Studies (SAGE) | Yes, Sage Choice hybrid | Case studies only; 35 pages including tables; fixed 15-section structure; abstract 150 to 250 | Single-anonymized; median 43 days review; 18% acceptance | IF 0.7; PsycINFO, Scopus, SSCI | Ethics statement or explicit "not applicable"; consent to publish confirmed; data-availability statement; ORCID required | The safe home for consented single cases |
| Journal of Financial Therapy (New Prairie Press / FTA) | Yes, diamond OA, no charges | Research to 30 pages; Practitioner's Corner with set structure (introduction, theory, literature, technique, case) | Double-blind | Scopus, PsycINFO, DOAJ; no JIF | Funding and AI disclosure; no stated IRB policy (follow CARE and consent anyway) | Financial harm, financial infidelity, trading |
| Clinical Social Work Journal (Springer) | Yes (APC $3,390) | Research, clinical theory and application, professional issues; about 20 double-spaced pages | Double-blind | JIF 1.1 (2025); PsycINFO, SSCI, Scopus | Ethics approval including case reports; CARE, COREQ, SRQR; COI | |
| Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions (Taylor & Francis) | Yes, Open Select | Research and practice articles, Special Topic column; limits not verified | Double-anonymized, 2 to 4 referees | IF 0.4; ESCI, Scopus | T&F standard | Practice models; clinician surveys |
| Health & Social Work (Oxford / NASW) | Standard route (OUP hybrid; not stated on page) | Full 20 pages; Practice Forum 8; Viewpoint 7; letters 2 | Anonymous, at least 3 reviewers | JIF 1.5 (2025); MEDLINE, SSCI | NASW Press style | Short practice-tool papers (Practice Forum) |
| Qualitative Health Research (SAGE) | Yes, Sage Choice | Original research 8,000 words | Double-anonymized; 7% acceptance | JIF 3.1; MEDLINE, SSCI | Ethics board name and approval number; consent described; no COREQ checklist wanted | Formal interview studies only |
| Journal of Behavioral Addictions (Akadémiai Kiadó) | No: gold OA; APC about €1,400 (DOAJ); no waiver for US authors | Full 4,000; review 6,000; brief 2,000; commentary 2,000; case report 2,000; letter 1,000 (2018 guide; verify) | Double-anonymous | JIF about 6.3; MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SSCI | IRB and consent statement | Highest prestige in the field; pay-to-publish |
| Current Addiction Reports (Springer) | Yes on the subscription route, but reviews are commissioned by section editors | Invited reviews | Editor review; 14-day median | JIF 4.2 (2025); SSCI, Scopus | Standard | Pitch the Behavioral Addictions section editor |
| Gaming Law Review (Mary Ann Liebert) | Check the author page | Law and regulation articles and commentary | Not verified | Not verified | Standard | The venue for prediction-market and regulatory law pieces |
Requirements that apply almost everywhere
Author identity. Register an ORCID (free; mandatory at Addiction and Clinical Case Studies, expected everywhere) and use one author name consistently. No journal here requires an institutional affiliation or email; a practice or an independent affiliation is accepted.
Ethics statement wording by design. No human participants: "This study did not involve human participants; ethics approval was not required." Consented case study: "The client provided written informed consent for publication; identifying details have been altered." Survey or interviews: "Approved by [IRB name], protocol [number]; all participants provided informed consent." Composite vignettes must be labelled as composites.
Reporting guidelines. STROBE for cross-sectional surveys; COREQ or SRQR for interviews; CARE for case reports; PRISMA or PRISMA-ScR for reviews. Content analyses have no formal checklist, so reviewers look for a codebook, dual coding on a subsample and an agreement statistic.
Open science. A data-availability statement is mandatory at Journal of Gambling Studies, Addictive Behaviors (deposit required), Clinical Case Studies and Addiction. The Open Science Framework is free for de-identified data, code, codebooks and preregistrations. Addiction treats unregistered analyses as exploratory.
Disclosures. Competing interests, funding ("no external funding" is a complete answer) and generative-AI use, now required at Critical Gambling Studies, Journal of Financial Therapy, Addictive Behaviors and Qualitative Health Research.
Mechanics. Double-anonymized journals need a blinded manuscript with a separate title page and third-person self-citation. APA 7 references at the Springer, SAGE, CDS Press, CGS and JFT titles; Vancouver-style numbered references at Addiction and the Journal of Addiction Medicine. Most journals ask for three to five suggested reviewers. Preprints (PsyArXiv, OSF, SSRN) are permitted by the Springer, Elsevier, SAGE and Wiley titles listed here.
Turnaround. Median first decisions are days at Springer and Elsevier (desk rejections included) and one to two months for full review; expect three to six months to acceptance and acceptance rates of 20 to 30 percent at mid-tier titles. Plan a cascade (primary, backup, then a diamond or lower-tier title) so a rejection costs a week, not a season.
Sources: each journal's submission guidelines, author instructions and fee pages, DOAJ records, and SCImago and Web of Science aggregator pages, checked on the date above.