5 (4) of the Optional Protocol (final decisions on the merits) as well as a selection of decisions on admissi­ bility and other decisions adopted in the course of proceedings under the Optional Protocol. In addition to the views, the decisions selected are those which best illustrate, on the procedural level, the Committee's method of work at the different stages of consideration of cases, and on the substantive level, the provisions of the Covenant and of the Optional Protocol. 8. With regard to the publication of decisions relating to communications declared inadmissible or on which action has been discontinued, the names of the author(s), the alleged victim(s) and the State party are, where the Committee considers it desirable, replaced by letters or initials. With respect to decisions of an in­ terlocutory kind, including decisions declaring a com­ munication admissible, the Committee will normally not publish the names of the author(s), the alleged vic­ tim (s) and the State party concerned, unless the names have been disclosed in a decision already published. 9. Communications under the Optional Protocol are numbered consecutively, indicating the year of registration (e.g. No. 1/1976). 10. The Human Rights Committee hopes that this publication will be of value to all interested parties. Governments, practitioners, research workers and the general public, and will contribute to its goal of strengthening international observance of the rights en­ shrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.