Measurement Validation as Scientific Claim Admissibility: An Evidence-Gated Decision Framework

Abstract Measurement validation is often reported as a binary property of an instrument, although a single system may support some bounded conclusions while leaving stronger ones unsupported. This paper formulates validation as a constrained scientific claim-admissibility problem. A general operator maps declared intended use, evaluated evidence, claim-specific requirements and claim strength to admitted and maximal claims, blocked overclaims, retained limitations, abstentions and next evidence actions. The Evidence-Gated Decision Framework implements this operator through applicability resolution, strict non-compensation and a versioned audit trace. Formal consistency properties establish monotonicity, irredundant evidence bases and local degradation under evidence removal for a frozen model. Measurement uncertainty, traceability and JCGM 106-type conformity decisions remain locally evaluated evidence objects. A synthetic temperature demonstrator isolates the decision logic, while an independent real-data motor-vibration case adds practical evaluation using 24 OROS OR35 acquisitions at four rotational-speed conditions. A magnetically mounted Dytran 3214A2 accelerometer and a Monarch ROS optical tachometer are acquired on the same time base. Across 600, 800, 1000 and 1200 min−1, the absolute group-mean vibration-derived 1×/tachometer frequency differences range from 1.94 × 10−4 to 5.92 × 10−4 Hz, the maximum absolute record-level difference is 0.002408 Hz, and the expanded comparison uncertainties are about 0.0096 Hz (k = 2). The case shows how one local compatibility result supports a bounded frequency-consistency claim without implying traceable acceleration, universal spectral interpretation or field readiness. Seven claim-separable evidence classes are instantiated as EVL 0–6, with EVL 7 reserved for the adjudicated output.