Currently submitted to: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jul 3, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 9, 2026 - Sep 3, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Regulatory Sandboxes for Artificial Intelligence: Protocol for a Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Regulatory sandboxes are increasingly used to govern artificial intelligence (AI), yet peer-reviewed analyses providing a cross-sector overview of AI regulatory sandboxes remain limited, particularly for health AI and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This gap is particularly consequential for health regulators in low- and middle-income countries seeking to develop such mechanisms, where regulatory capacity constraints make design choices especially consequential.
Objective:
This scoping review aims to map regulatory sandboxes implemented, planned, or proposed for AI globally, characterise their defining design features, and identify lessons from all sectors (particularly fintech and data governance) that could inform the development of health AI regulatory sandboxes, especially in low- and middle-income country contexts.
Methods:
We will conduct a scoping review following JBI methodology and report findings in accordance with PRISMA-ScR. We will search an academic database (Scopus), complemented by a Google Scholar search and a structured grey literature search comprising targeted organisational website searches and custom Google searches. Backward citation searching will be conducted on all included sources.
Results:
Preliminary searches were conducted in April 2026, and informed the final research protocol. A formal screening of titles and abstracts is scheduled to begin in July 2026. Data extraction and synthesis are expected to be completed by September 2026. The final results are anticipated to be submitted for publication in November 2026.
Conclusions:
This review aims to provide an overview of the regulatory sandboxes used to govern AI, with the goal of informing policy decisions, particularly in LMIC settings.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.