RMP.2:4.7 - Return Exactly One ResearchDesignDisposition

Branch A — EvidenceSufficientStop. Use only when current qualified evidence meets the answer condition. Return the exact answer with the evidence, applicability and limitations needed for this use; keep a later receiver’s decision-changing reason or uncertainty visible. The answer itself completes the branch. Select no design and create no unused option comparison or no-study form.

Branch B — ResearchDesignDecision plus PostSelectionNeed. Use only when one feasible family and criticism logic are justified by comparison with actual alternative strategies and with the option of no new study, the expected contribution warrants the whole burden, and no missing value can overturn the selection. Record the selected strategy, candidate comparison, justification, core contrast/criticism, threats, supplied external results, resource and refusal conditions, expected information gain, useful stop, rejected alternatives, and later needs. Before returning Branch B, apply the joint-input test in RMP.2:4.3 to the complete set of remaining needs. For each PostSelectionNeed, show:

1. the bounded value still needed and its owner;
2. the admissible range or alternatives already constrained by supplied results;
3. the invariant selected family and core criticism across every admissible value; and
4. the action if the value arrives outside that range.

An explicitly empty set is written as PostSelectionNeed: none. A need is not post-selection when its unfavorable value would change the family, core contrast, criticism, feasibility, or refusal; return Branch C instead.

Branch C — ResearchDesignHold. Use when a particular selection is still needed and a named missing result prevents deciding it. Make the missing result and owner, exact question and affected candidates, at least two plausible result values and their different design/stop consequences, currently viable alternatives, what Work must not begin, and the reopen condition recoverable. Do not name a “provisional selected design.” The hold identifies the conditional dependency; deciding to obtain that result is separate and requires its own worth, feasibility and authority. The hold can be a useful complete answer about what prevents selection without asserting that an investigation is under way.

Branch D — QualifiedNoNewStudy. Use when the present allocation question is settled by selecting no new study although the evidence does not meet the answer condition. Return the strongest bounded answer or state the exact claim that remains unresolved, together with the reason no worthwhile obtainable study is selected under the current facts and constraints. An unavailable evidence opportunity or the whole burden of the obtainable options exceeding their expected contribution may settle this answer. Keep limitations and the condition that could reopen the choice visible for the receiving use. A material unknown need not become a pending task when no acquisition has been selected. Do not call the evidence sufficient, imply a selected design, waive a receiving authority’s requirements or present obtaining the missing result as commissioned.

The four branches are mutually exclusive for one present selection boundary. Their names distinguish the results; they do not require a separate document or an empty declaration of an unused branch. New evidence or a changed receiving use can reopen the choice. Only Branch B, or a compatible supplied selected-design result, gives RMP.3 a ResearchDesignDecision; a sufficient answer, QualifiedNoNewStudy or a hold does not.