A record of the Observatory's evidence classification framework as applied across The Frontier Record corpus. Documents the four evidence weight categories — Primary, Secondary, Contested, and Counter — their definitions, and the governance rules that govern their assignment. Published as institutional record so that the evidentiary standard is transparent and externally verifiable.
The Observatory assigns an evidence weight to every source appended to a Frontier Record. This register records what those weights mean, how they are assigned, and what governance rules apply. It exists because an evidentiary standard that is not published is not a standard — it is an assumption.
Four categories are in current use. The vocabulary is controlled: no weight outside this register may be assigned to an evidence source without a formal amendment.
Evidence directly bearing on the claim under observation. Typically the originating publication, a direct replication attempt, or an operational result under the stated conditions. Primary evidence is the primary basis for assessment transitions. Multiple primary sources in tension are the normal condition of an Audit-state record.
Evidence bearing on the claim indirectly — methodological reviews, adjacent findings, contextual data that informs but does not directly test the claim. Secondary evidence may support or qualify an assessment but does not independently warrant a state transition.
Evidence whose evidentiary status is itself in dispute. Applied when the source has been challenged on methodological, interpretive, or factual grounds and the challenge has not been resolved. A contested source remains on the record; its weight reflects its current standing, not its original claim.
Evidence that directly challenges the claim under observation, typically by contesting a founding assumption, replicating the experiment under different conditions, or demonstrating an alternative explanation for the primary result. Counter evidence is the primary driver of Audit-state persistence.
Evidence weight is assigned at the time of appending and recorded in the mutation log. Weight may be revised if the evidentiary status of a source changes — for example, if a Primary source is subsequently challenged and becomes Contested. Any revision is a mutation and must be logged. Weight is never silently changed.
This register is version-controlled. Additions or amendments to the evidence weight vocabulary require a new version of this note (EN-002 or later). The current version governs all records in the corpus from the date of publication. Prior records are not retroactively reclassified; their evidence weights are interpreted under the register version current at the time of assignment.
As of EN-001 (2026-06-10), the evidence weight framework has been applied to all evidence sources in FR-QE-0001. Extension across the full corpus is in progress. Records without fully classified evidence sources are noted in the mutation log.