Public Release - 2026-06-25

A protocol paper is evidence for a bounded claim, not a universal deployment certificate.

Artifact: protocol_paper_evidence_tier_map_v1. This note maps each protocol paper to the tier of evidence it actually supports before the claim is reused in systems, products, or public arguments.

paper_id supported_claim theory_tier experiment_tier implementation_tier use_boundary unsupported_claim

Evidence Map Registries Boundaries Counterexamples

Protocol Paper Evidence Tier Map v1 public evidence visual.

Artifact

The tier map prevents a paper from being used as a blank check.

A protocol paper can establish a formal structure, a measured effect, an implementation route, or a review boundary. Those are different evidential states. The tier map forces the public claim to say which level exists and which level is still absent.

Evidence Tiers

Theory, experiment, and implementation are not interchangeable.

A theoretical result can be strong without proving production behavior. A benchmark can be useful without proving deployment safety. A working implementation can still leave the supported claim narrower than the surrounding narrative.

Boundary

The unsupported claim is part of the public object.

The strongest use of a protocol paper is to name the claim it supports and the claim it does not. That separation keeps evidence from becoming a universal certificate after it leaves the paper.

paper_id

The paper or protocol artifact being mapped.

supported_claim

The narrow claim the paper actually supports.

theory_tier

The formal, mathematical, architectural, or conceptual support level.

experiment_tier

The empirical, benchmark, replay, or comparison support level.

implementation_tier

The code, system, artifact, or operational implementation support level.

unsupported_claim

The deployment, product, safety, or generalization claim not established by the paper.