Institutional Framework and Founding Charter

Palestine Polling Center is an independent and politically non-aligned research organization working in public-opinion polling, social and economic research, humanitarian and development research, market research, evaluation, and data. It may work with diverse organizations without allowing a professional relationship to become dependency in judgment or method.

• Produce testable knowledge about people’s views, experiences, and conditions.
• Conduct commissioned studies and independent research initiatives.
• Develop context-appropriate methods and instruments.
• Collect, analyze, publish, or restrict data according to rights and protection needs.
• Provide advisory, training, and capacity development.
• Contribute to better public discussion, decisions, programs, and services.

The Center undertakes research for public, civil-society, academic, international, and commercial organizations while retaining full professional and methodological independence. The commissioner defines its needs and research questions; findings and analysis remain governed by the data, methodology, and professional standards.

• No predetermined result is guaranteed.
• A valid finding is not removed because it is inconvenient.
• Intervention changing the population, instrument, or analysis requires justification and documentation.
• Material commissioning, funding, and conflicts of interest are disclosed.
• Partnership or contract does not constitute endorsement of positions, policies, or activities.

The Center’s operational and legal structure should clearly assign responsibility for management, research, finance, data protection, publication, and complaints. Functions that may conflict should be separated where feasible, and material approvals and decisions documented.

• Institutional management responsible for direction, compliance, and resources.
• Research leadership responsible for methodology and quality.
• Clear data-protection and security responsibilities.
• Ethical review proportionate to risk.
• Mechanisms for conflicts of interest, complaints, and corrections.

• A clear question and legitimate purpose.
• Appropriate and justified design.
• Interpretable samples or data sources.
• Piloted, translated, and reviewed instruments where needed.
• Training, supervision, and quality checks.
• An analysis plan that reduces selective reporting.
• Internal review of figures, text, and tables.
• Disclosure of limitations and avoidance of unsupported generalization.

• Voluntary participation and appropriate consent.
• Withdrawal or question-skipping where applicable.
• Harm reduction and attention to security and social risk.
• Protection of children and at-risk groups.
• Minimization and separation of identifying information.
• Restricted access, deletion, or anonymization according to plan.
• No targeting, punishment, or reidentification using research data.

• Identify publication status: preliminary, final, revised, or withdrawn.
• Provide enough methodology to interpret findings.
• Distinguish Center findings from external contributor opinions.
• Correct and disclose material errors.
• Accept good-faith complaints and protect complainants from retaliation.
• Protect intellectual property, require attribution, and support responsible reuse.
• Review and update the framework when structure, risk, or requirements change.

“Palestine Polling Center” is used as the institutional name for the Website and research activity. Legal form, registration number, jurisdiction, and legal address will be added only after approval and verification; placeholders are not treated as legal facts.

• Public-opinion polling.
• Political, civic, and electoral research.
• Social and economic research.
• Humanitarian and development research.
• Monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Market and consumer research.
• Data collection and fieldwork management.
• Analysis, reporting, methodological advisory, and training.

• Define authority for approval, review, signature, and data access.
• Separate contract and funding management from judgment on findings where practicable.
• Document material decisions, conflicts, and exceptions.
• Avoid leaving a sensitive decision to one person where independent review is feasible.
• Define who receives complaints, who reviews them, and who decides action.

Named roles and authority descriptions will be published after the organizational structure is approved. Until then, the Charter identifies functions the system must cover: institutional leadership, research leadership, field management, data management, quality review, data protection, and financial and administrative management.

• Disclose relevant financial, professional, or political relationships.
• Assess whether a conflict can be managed or requires recusal.
• Remove the affected person from final decision-making where needed.
• Record action rather than relying on nominal disclosure.
• Disclose a material conflict in publication where it affects interpretation.

Resources may arise from contracts, grants, partnerships, project services, or support. Funding does not give the funder a right to alter findings, conceal methodology, or use the Center’s name beyond the agreement. Research cost is separate from the validity or value of its findings.

• Review fit with purpose, expertise, and capacity.
• Assess whether a valid design is possible within time and budget.
• Evaluate participant, researcher, and data safety.
• Reject deceptive, discriminatory, or harmful-targeting assignments.
• Do not accept a clause allowing a commissioner to suppress a valid finding merely because it is inconvenient.

Contracts, proposals, instruments, approvals, versions, quality records, delivery, and correction records are retained under approved access and retention rules. Unapproved personal accounts are not used as the sole archive of institutional material.

Services, vendors, and contractors are selected for fit, cost, quality, security, and conflicts. Use of a third party does not remove the Center’s responsibility to define standards, monitor performance, and protect participants and data.

Participants, staff, clients, and the public may submit complaints, feedback, error reports, or impersonation concerns. Complaint handling should be separated from the subject of the complaint where possible, and review, decision, and action are documented with confidentiality and procedural fairness.

The Charter may be amended through a documented institutional decision after reviewing the effect on independence, ethics, rights, and obligations. Version and effective date are displayed, and prior versions needed for accountability are retained.

A project, dataset, or service may be subject to more specific terms. Those rules apply within their scope only where they do not reduce the minimum participant-protection, integrity, and independence safeguards established by this framework.