114 Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners Any copyright restrictions that the monitoring programme or the organization deem necessary to impose on the use of its publications should be clearly mentioned at the front of the document.171 However, considering that most monitoring programmes aim to disseminate their findings as widely as possible, and since reports are not published for profit, it is best not to place heavy restrictions on the usage of materials from a report. Undue copyright restrictions can also complicate matters if permission for reproduction is sought after the close-down of a programme or mission. Although the ideas contained in reports should be freely promoted, anyone who wishes to use entire parts of reports verbatim should be expected to quote their source. A note to this effect could be made as part of the copyright notice at the beginning of a report. For instance, certain published reports use the formula: All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may be freely used and copied for educational purposes and other non-commercial purposes, provided that any such reproduction is accompanied by an acknowledgement of the OSCE Mission as the source.172 Because report writing and the publication process are demanding undertakings for monitoring staff, reports have sometimes included the name of the author or authors. However, security considerations should always be taken into account when deciding to acknowledge the drafters of or contributors to reports by name. A report that uses acronyms or abbreviations in the text should always include at a visible place, preferably at the beginning, a list of all the abbreviations mentioned, with the corresponding terms or names they replace written out in full. The first time an acronym or abbreviation is used in the text it should be in parenthesis following the full name or term to which it refers. A table of contents should always be included at the beginning of a report. This is especially important for readers in cases where the report comprises several chapters or concepts, or if it is particularly lengthy. Tables of contents should present not only the major chapters, but also subchapters that are clearly distinguished. However, they may not need to go beyond a three-level depth of subtitles. ÀÀ Executive summary An executive summary sets out briefly the main findings, conclusions and recommendations elaborated in a report. It is a good practice to include one in all reports. Especially if a report is lengthy, an executive summary maximizes the chances that busy actors will become familiar with its most important points. In this sense, an executive summary can be the most important section of a report and deserves the particular attention of drafters and managers. Executive summaries also help ensure that readers have a good understanding of what is addressed in the report prior to reading it in detail, and may serve to attract the reader’s interest in reading the full report or attention in parts of it. ÀÀ Introduction The introduction sets out the background to and the basis for a monitoring report.173 It may describe the overall monitoring programme and how the particular report fits into the broader programme. 171  A trial monitoring publication is likely to be subject to copyright protection in many countries. This will prohibit anyone from reprinting or redistributing the report. Even websites may be prohibited from including a report without a license from the copyright holder. 172  Other copyright practices used by field operations can also be consulted through accessing their public reports, while one of the Creative Commons licenses could also be considered; see <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/>. 173  This can include the legal basis for conducting monitoring, including an OSCE mandate, OSCE commitments and the right to a public trial under domestic and international law.