Term	Definition
Associative saturation	Repeated exposure–outcome studies conducted after the association has already been characterized by sufficient stability for the decision at hand; a manifestation of Causal Maturation Drift.
Causal escalation	Describing an association as causation without an adequate identification strategy (e.g., no temporality, no control for confounding, and no explicit assumptions). A form of Evidence Drift.
Causal Maturation Drift (CMD)	A persistent trajectory-level pattern in which a field continues to generate, replicate, or refine findings within an established narrow domain, without proportionate progress toward the temporal, mechanistic, causal, comparative, long-term, or implementation evidence needed to resolve the principal decision-relevant uncertainty.
Contextual extrapolation	Generalizing findings from one population, setting, exposure range, comparator, or follow-up period to another without empirical or theoretical support. This is a form of Evidence Drift.
Dual-Drift Framework	A conceptual model that distinguishes two complementary failures—Evidence Drift (inferential overextension) and Causal Maturation Drift (developmental under-resolution)—unified under the principle of Inferential Fidelity.
Endpoint confinement	Persistent focus on a narrow, surrogate, short-term, or technical outcome, while patient-important, comparative, or long-term outcomes remain underdeveloped. A manifestation of Causal Maturation Drift.
Endpoint inflation	Expanding a narrow, lesion-level, short-term, or process outcome into a claim of disease resolution, comprehensive benefit, or patient-important outcome. This is a form of Evidence Drift.
Evidence Drift (ED)	The movement of a finding toward a stronger or different causal, clinical, implementation, or policy claim without an adequate evidentiary bridge. Assessed at the claim level.
Evidence-Implementation Fidelity	The preservation of diagnostic accuracy, monitoring, safety, referral pathways, patient-centered outcomes, and equity when translating evidence into real-world delivery. A dimension of Inferential Fidelity.
Implementation deferral	Repeated postponement of studies on delivery, safety, sustainability, equity, or comparative effectiveness after efficacy is established. A manifestation of Causal Maturation Drift.
Implementation overreach	Equating efficacy, uptake, or reach with proof of real-world effectiveness, sustainability, safety, equity, or replacement of the standard of care is a form of Evidence Drift.
Inferential Fidelity	The preservation of alignment among the question posed, the design used, the result obtained, the claim advanced, the uncertainty that remains, the next research step selected, and the safeguards maintained during implementation.
Lateral accumulation	Growth in publications, datasets, or analytical detail that does not proportionally improve the resolution of the central inferential or clinical question. The defining movement of Causal Maturation Drift.
Mechanistic recursion	Increasingly detailed laboratory or omics explanations that lack sufficient linkage to temporality, intervention, or clinically modifiable targets. This is a manifestation of Causal Maturation Drift.
Mechanistic substitution	Treating biological plausibility or a biomarker as proof that modifying a mechanism improves patient or population outcomes. A form of Evidence Drift.
Question-Design Fidelity	The extent to which the chosen study design can validly answer the stated research question. A dimension of Inferential Fidelity.
Result-Claim Fidelity	The proportionality between the evidence obtained (including its limitations) and the conclusion or recommendation advanced. A dimension of Inferential Fidelity.
Scientific maturation (functional definition)	Reducing consequential uncertainty, clarifying the conditions under which a claim is valid, or demonstrating that a hypothesis should be narrowed, redirected, or abandoned. Maturation is not equated with confirmation.
Technology-led refinement	Use of a new platform to generate more granular versions of an established observation without answering the next clinical or inferential question. This is a manifestation of Causal Maturation Drift.
Triangulation	The use of multiple approaches with different, preferably unrelated, sources of bias to address the same causal or clinical question strengthens inference when findings converge.
Uncertainty-Next-Study Fidelity	The alignment of subsequent research with the most consequential unresolved issue, rather than merely reproducing the most accessible finding. This is a dimension of Inferential Fidelity.