The multidisciplinary journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS) publishes research articles, short original papers, mini-reviews, reviews and multi-author reviews covering the latest results in biological and biomedical research. The journal will consider contributions focusing on molecular and cellular aspects of biomedicine, cell biology, immunology, molecular genetics, neuroscience, biochemistry, pharmacology and physiology related to pharmacology. In addition, CMLS welcomes comments on any article published in CMLS (see 'Letters and Comments' at the end of the instructions). The Editorial Process Manuscripts received are acknowledged immediately. Once a paper has been evaluated, the authors will be notified of the editorial decision (in general within one month after submission). Authors of papers accepted for publication are entitled to receive thirty reprints at no cost. Additional reprints may be ordered at a charge. Preparation of Manuscripts Authorship: It is understood that the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining agreement of all co-authors of the manuscript submitted to CMLS. Submission of the manuscript implies that (submitted) manuscripts have not been published, nor will be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. A covering letter should contain a statement to that effect. Experiments on animals must be in line with the ?Ethical principles and guidelines for scientific experiments on animals? of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. Copies are available from the editorial office. Experiments involving human subjects should conform to the guidelines of the World Medical Assembly (Declaration of Helsinki). Scope: The covering letter should include a brief statement justifying how the paper fits within the scope of CMLS. Format of Manuscripts Research articles should follow the standard scientific format: abstract; key words; introduction; materials and methods; results; discussion; references. Manuscripts reporting only preliminary results are not accepted. The title page should include a title as short as possible (max. 1 line) which does not contain any abbreviations,the author's name, affiliation, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address (if available), as well as a running title (max. 5 words). A short, self-explanatory abstract of 100每150 words should be submitted on a separate page followed by a brief listing of carefully selected key words (5每8). The length should not exceed 12 typeset pages, including figures, tables and references. Abbreviations should be avoided in the title and abstract. They may be used in the abstract if they are defined when first used by placing them in brackets after the full term. Tables, figures and figure legends should all be presented on separate pages at the end of the article. They should be numbered in arabic numerals. As figures may be reduced for printing, the lettering should not be too small. Drawings should be on good quality paper and marked clearly in black. Authors are welcome to submit colour illustrations, which may be included at the discretion of the editors. All data should be expressed in units conforming to the Syst豕me International (SI). Please avoid footnotes. It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce original or modified material that has previously been published. References The literature should be referred to by numbers in the text in square brackets. In the bibliography, the references should be listed in order of appearance and should contain full article titles, chapter titles of books as well as first and last pages of each article cited. Journal abbreviations should follow Index Medicus style. ?Unpublished observations? may be mentioned in the text, but have no place in the references. Papers ?in press? may be cited provided the publishing journal is named. References to manuscripts ?submitted? or ?in preparation? are not acceptable. For references that list more than six authors, include the first six only, followed by ?et al.? Examples: 1 Di Cera E., Dang Q. D. and Ayala Y. M. (1997) Molecular mechanisms of thrombin function. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 53: 701每730 2 Cahill M. A., Janknecht R. and Nordheim A. (1995) Signal uptake by the c-fos serum response element. In: Inducible Gene Expression, vol. 2, pp. 39每73, Baeuerle P. A. (ed.), Birkh?user Verlag, Basel Submission of Manuscripts - at http://cmls.manuscriptcentral.com To speed up the refereeing process, electronic submission is highly appreciated (Submit now). Please note: refereeing can only begin, provided all figure files have been submitted For reviewing it is highly appreciated to upload the manuscript as ONE PDF file, including figures and tables. Manuscripts should be written in English. All text, including figure legends, tables and references, should be typed double-spaced. Please follow the instructions while submitting online and take into consideration: Texts should be delivered in either DOS or Macintosh format as DOC or RTF files. Once uploaded, the texts will automatically be converted into a PDF file In the final processing stage hard copies of figures will be required All pictorial and graphic illustrations should be delivered as hard copy originals and must be 200% of the final printed size. Digital drawings and graphs should be submitted in Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) or Tag Image File Format (TIFF) form. Keeping back-ups is in the responsibility of the authors. Authors are also requested to provide the names and full addresses (including e-mail address) of four potential referees, outside their countries and with whom they have not worked before. Letters and Comments In addition to manuscripts, letters or comments on an article published in the past 6 months in CMLS are welcome and may appear in print in one of the following issues. Letters and comments can be edited and shortened for reasons of clarity and space. Each comment will be sent to the corresponding author of the discussed article together with an invitation to respond. The comment and the reply may be sent to an independent referee. However, the editor-in-chief will make the final decision whether the correspondence will be published. CMLS allows the original author a deadline of two weeks to reply. If no answer is received within this timeframe, the editor-in-chief will decide if the letter or comment will be published without response. In order to avoid long disputes, only the original comment together with the response of the author will be published. Any additional comments or remarks should be sent to the authors directly and will not further be handled by CMLS. Letters and comments should not exceed more than 2-3 typed, double spaced pages. A maximum of 5 references should not be exceeded.Figures should be avoided, unless there is a special need to clarify the written content. Only black and white figures are accepted. A separate page should include a short title, the name and affiliations of the writer, as well as the exact citation of the article commented on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructions for authors for the preparation of review articles The multidisciplinary journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS) publishes research articles, short original papers, mini-reviews, reviews and multi-author reviews covering the latest results in biological and biomedical research. The journal will consider contributions of high quality focusing on molecular and cellular aspects of biomedicine, cell biology, immunology, molecular genetics, neuroscience, biochemistry and pharmacology. In addition, CMLS welcomes comments on any article published in CMLS (see 'Letters and Comments' at the end of the instructions). The Editorial Process Reviews received are acknowledged immediately. Reviews will be sent to at least one referee for reviewing. Once the review has been evaluated, the authors will be notified of the editorial decision (in general within six weeks after submission). Authors of reviews accepted for publication are entitled to receive thirty reprints at no cost. Additional reprints may be ordered at a charge. Preparation of Manuscripts Authorship: It is understood that the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the agreement of all co-authors of the manuscript submitted to CMLS. Submission of the manuscripts implies that (submitted) manuscripts have not been published, nor will be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. A covering letter should contain a statement to that effect. Presentation: Reviews should be presented as overviews of recent progress in research fields of general interest. Scope: The covering letter should include a brief statement justifying how the paper fits within the scope of CMLS. Format of review manuscripts The title page should include a title as short as possible (max. 1 line) which does not contain any abbreviations, the author's name, affiliation, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address (if available), as well as a running title (max. 5 words). A short, self-explanatory abstract of 100-150 words should be submitted on a separate page followed by a brief listing of carefully selected key words (5-8). Abbreviations should be avoided in the title and abstract. They may be used in the abstract if they are defined when first used by placing them in brackets after the full term. The length of a review should not exceed 16 typeset pages at the most (35 manuscript pages including figures, tables and references) Tables, figures and figure legends should all be presented on separate pages at the end of the article. They should be numbered in arabic numerals. As figures may be reduced for printing, the lettering should not be too small. Drawings should be on good quality paper and marked clearly in black. Authors are welcome to submit colour illustrations, which may be included at the discretion of the editors. All data should be expressed in units conforming to the Syst豕me International (SI). Please avoid footnotes. It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce original or modified material that has previously been published. References The literature should be referred to by numbers in the text in square brackets. In the bibliography, the references should be listed in order of appearance and should contain full article titles, chapter titles of books as well as first and last pages of each article cited. Journal abbreviations should follow Index Medicus style. ?Unpublished observations? may be mentioned in the text, but have no place in the references. Papers ?in press? may be cited provided the publishing journal is named. References to manuscripts ?submitted? or ?in preparation? are not acceptable. For references that list more than six authors, include the first six only, followed by ?et al.? Examples: 1 Di Cera E., Dang Q. D. and Ayala Y. M. (1997) Molecular mechanisms of thrombin function. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 53: 701每730 2 Cahill M. A., Janknecht R. and Nordheim A. (1995) Signal uptake by the c-fos serum response element. In: Inducible Gene Expression, vol. 2, pp. 39每73, Baeuerle P. A. (ed.), Birkh?user Verlag, Basel Submission of Manuscripts - at http://cmls.manuscriptcentral.com To speed up the refereeing process, electronic submission is highly appreciated (Submit now). Please note: refereeing can only begin, provided all figure files have been submitted For reviewing it is highly appreciated to upload the manuscript as ONE PDF file, including figures and tables. Manuscripts should be written in English. All text, including figure legends, tables and references, should be typed double-spaced. Please follow the instructions while submitting online and take into consideration: Texts should be delivered in either DOS or Macintosh format as DOC or RTF files. Once uploaded, the texts will automatically be converted into a PDF file In the final processing stage hard copies of figures will be required All pictorial and graphic illustrations should be delivered as hard copy originals and must be 200% of the final printed size. Digital drawings and graphs should be submitted in Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) or Tag Image File Format (TIFF) form. Keeping back-ups is in the responsibility of the authors. Authors are also requested to provide the names and full addresses (including e-mail address) of four potential referees, outside their countries and with whom they have not worked before. Letters and Comments In addition to manuscripts, letters or comments on an article published in the past 6 months in CMLS are welcome and may appear in print in one of the following issues. Letters and comments can be edited and shortened for reasons of clarity and space. Each comment will be sent to the corresponding author of the discussed article together with an invitation to respond. The comment and the reply may be sent to an independent referee. However, the editor-in-chief will make the final decision whether the correspondence will be published. CMLS allows the original author a deadline of two weeks to reply. If no answer is received within this timeframe, the editor-in-chief will decide if the letter or comment will be published without response. In order to avoid long disputes, only the original comment together with the response of the author will be published. Any additional comments or remarks should be sent to the authors directly and will not further be handled by CMLS. Letters and comments should not exceed more than 2-3 typed, double spaced pages. A maximum of 5 references should not be exceeded.Figures should be avoided, unless there is a special need to clarify the written content. Only black and white figures are accepted. A separate page should include a short title, the name and affiliations of the writer, as well as the exact citation of the article commented on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructions for authors for the preparation of articles in the 'Visions and Reflections' section The Editorial Process The multidisciplinary journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS) publishes research articles, short original papers, mini-reviews, reviews and multi-author reviews covering the latest results in biological and biomedical research. The journal considers contributions focusing on molecular and cellular aspects of biochemistry, biomedicine, cell biology, immunology, molecular genetics, neuroscience and pharmacology. In addition, CMLS wants to publish short articles in a section called 'Visions and Reflections'. In this new millenium, CMLS would like to mark the current state of certain fields of research with a critical or provocative examination of key issues reflecting upon the directions the fields might take. This short section will appear from time to time and aims to spark the interest and activity of our most talented colleagues. CMLS welcomes comments on any article published in CMLS (see 'Letters and Comments' at the end of the instructions). Format of 'Visions and Reflections' - Articles The title page should include a title as short as possible which does not contain any abbreviations, the author's name, affiliation, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address (if available), as well as a running title (max. 5 words). If the author wishes, a short abstract may be included on a separate page. The length of 'Visions and Reflections' manuscripts should be approximately 2 printed pages (about 4 to 5 manuscript pages). Abbreviations should be avoided in the title and abstract. They may be used in the abstract if they are defined when first used by placing them in brackets after the full term. If the manuscript contains Tables or figures (not more than 2), they should be presented on separate pages at the end of the article, together with the figure legends. They should be numbered in arabic numerals. As figures may be reduced for printing, the lettering should not be too small. Drawings should be on good quality paper and marked clearly in black. Authors are welcome to submit colour illustrations, which may be included at the discretion of the editors. All data should be expressed in units conforming to the Syst鋗e International (SI). Please avoid footnotes. It is the authors responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce original or modified material that has previously been published. References The literature should be referred to by numbers in the text in square brackets. In the bibliography, the references should be listed in order of appearance and should contain full article titles, chapter titles of books as well as first and last pages of each article cited. Journal abbreviations should follow Index Medicus style. ?Unpublished observations? may be mentioned in the text, but have no place in the references. Papers ?in press? may be cited provided the publishing journal is named. References to manuscripts ?submitted? or ?in preparation? are not acceptable. For references that list more than six authors, include the first six only, followed by ?et al.? Examples: 1 Di Cera E., Dang Q. D. and Ayala Y. M. (1997) Molecular mechanisms of thrombin function. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 53: 701每730 2 Cahill M. A., Janknecht R. and Nordheim A. (1995) Signal uptake by the c-fos serum response element. In: Inducible Gene Expression, vol. 2, pp. 39每73, Baeuerle P. A. (ed.), Birkh?user Verlag, Basel Submission of Manuscripts - at http://cmls.manuscriptcentral.com To speed up the refereeing process, electronic submission is highly appreciated (Submit now). For reviewing it is highly appreciated to upload the manuscript as ONE PDF file, including figures and tables. Manuscripts should be written in English. All text, including figure legends, tables and references, should be typed double-spaced. Please follow the instructions while submitting online and take into consideration: Texts should be delivered in either DOS or Macintosh format as DOC or RTF files. Once uploaded, the texts will automatically be converted into a PDF file In the final processing stage hard copies of figures will be required All pictorial and graphic illustrations should be delivered as hard copy originals and must be 200% of the final printed size. Digital drawings and graphs should be submitted in Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) or Tag Image File Format (TIFF) form. Keeping back-ups is in the responsibility of the authors. Authors are also requested to provide the names and full addresses (including e-mail address) of four potential referees, outside their countries and with whom they have not worked before. Letters and Comments In addition to manuscripts, letters or comments on an article published in the past 6 months in CMLS are welcome and may appear in print in one of the following issues. Letters and comments can be edited and shortened for reasons of clarity and space. Each comment will be sent to the corresponding author of the discussed article together with an invitation to respond. The comment and the reply may be sent to an independent referee. However, the editor-in-chief will make the final decision whether the correspondence will be published. CMLS allows the original author a deadline of two weeks to reply. If no answer is received within this timeframe, the editor-in-chief will decide if the letter or comment will be published without response. In order to avoid long disputes, only the original comment together with the response of the author will be published. Any additional comments or remarks should be sent to the authors directly and will not further be handled by CMLS. Letters and comments should not exceed more than 2-3 typed, double spaced pages. A maximum of 5 references should not be exceeded.Figures should be avoided, unless there is a special need to clarify the written content. Only black and white figures are accepted. A separate page should include a short title, the name and affiliations of the writer, as well as the exact citation of the article commented on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information and instructions for guest editors of multi-author reviews One of the unique features of Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS) is the publication of review series ('multi-author reviews') that present a comprehensive picture of a wide range of topics and exciting new developments in cellular and molecular biology. Experience has shown that the success of a multi-author review invariably depends on a single factor: the energy and expertise of the guest editor in charge. The guest editor is, of course, welcome to take over the writing of any of these sections or articles. The multi-author review should not exceed 60 printed pages. The tasks of the guest editor entail: Designing an outline for the review and drawing up a list of potential authors to cover the different aspects of the topic Answering authors' queries Arranging for substitute authors if necessary Critically reading and editing the collected manuscripts. The guest editor is responsible for the scientific content of the articles The editor-in-chief receives the whole multi-author review for FINAL approval. The Publisher is responsible for the proofreading of all manuscripts for serious linguistic flaws. Technical terms should be checked by the guest editor and should be as uniform as possible throughout all articles of the review. Scanning the reference lists The guest editor should take care that the authors have followed the Publisher's instructions for styling references: Literature should be referred to by numbers in the text in square brackets. In the bibliography, the references should be listed in order of appearance and should contain full article titles, chapter titles of books as well as first and last pages of each article cited. Journal abbreviations should follow Index Medicus style. 'Unpublished observations' may be mentioned in the text, but have no place in the references. Papers 'in press' may be cited provided the publishing journal is named. References to manuscripts 'submitted' or 'in preparation' are not acceptable. For references that list more than six authors, include the first six only, followed by 'et al.' Keeping an eye open for any deviations from the journal's bibliographic style will also help us to eliminate unnecessary processing delays. Enforcing deadlines In order to adhere to publishing schedules, it is essential that the Publisher receive the complete set of edited manuscripts at least 4 months before the review is scheduled to appear. The guest editor should insist that the authors deliver their manuscripts to him at least 6 months before the anticipated publication date to allow him sufficient time for the editorial process. The Publisher will try as much as possible to relieve the guest editor of routine administrative work. The Publisher will be happy to send out the initial letters of invitation to potential authors and remind authors when the manuscript submission deadline is approaching. The format of multi-author reviews The multi-author review should be composed of an introduction (approx. 2 printed pages), usually written by the guest editor, and 5-7 review articles, approximately 16 manuscript pages each, including references, tables, figures and figure legends. These reviews should analyze the current state of research and future trends and developments ofthe topic. The articles should complement one another but preferably not overlap. Authors should be encouraged to exchange views with co-participants while preparing their manuscripts. The review should include a brief summing up, if possible with a look to future developments. Submission of manuscripts Manuscripts should be written in English. All text, including figure legends, tables and references, should be typed double-spaced. Please submit two paper copies along with a copy on diskette or CD. Certain points must be taken into consideration: Texts on diskette/CD should be delivered in either DOS or Macintosh format. They should be saved and delivered in two separate versions: 1. with standard text format as offered by your word processing program, and 2. in addition in Rich Text Format (RTF) or, as a last resort, as an ASCII file. Numerous word processing programs offer these options when saving the text. The final hard copy of the manuscript should be submitted together with the diskette/CD. The electronic and printed versions must be absolutely identical. All pictorial and graphic illustrations should be delivered as hard copy originals and must be 200% of the final printed size. Authors are welcome to submit color illustrations, which may be included at the discretion of the editors. Digital drawings and graphs should be submitted in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) or Tag Image File Format (TIFF) form. Do not fail to include a hard copy for ready viewing. Keeping back-ups is the responsibility of the authors. Diskettes/CDs must be adequately protected for transport. Additional Information In addition to manuscripts, letters or comments on any article published in the past 6 months in CMLS are welcome and may appear in print in one of the following issues. Letters and comments can be edited and shortened for reasons of clarity and space. Each comment will be sent to the corresponding author of the discussed article together with an invitation to respond. The comment and the reply may be sent to an independent referee. However, the editor-in-chief will make the final decision whether the correspondence will be published. CMLS allows the original author a deadline of two weeks to reply. If no answer is received within this timeframe, the editor-in-chief will decide if the letter or comment will be published without response. In order to avoid long disputes, only the original comment together with the response of the author will be published. Any additional comments or remarks should be sent to the authors directly and will not further be handled by CMLS. Letters and comments should not exceed more than 2-3 typed, double spaced pages. A maximum of 5 references should not be exceeded. Figures should be avoided, unless there is a special need to clarify the written content. Only black and white figures are accepted. A separate page should include a short title, the name and affiliations of the writer, as well as the exact citation of the article commented on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructions for authors for the preparation of a review article as part of a multi-author review The multidisciplinary journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS) publishes research articles, short original papers, mini-reviews, reviews and multi-author reviews covering the latest results in biological and biomedical research. The journal will consider contributions of high quality focusing on molecular and cellular aspects of biomedicine, cell biology, immunology, molecular genetics, neuroscience, biochemistry and pharmacology. In addition, CMLS welcomes comments on any article published in CMLS (see 'Letters and Comments' at the end of the instructions). The editorial process The guest-editor of the multi-author review is responsible for organizing the reviewing of the single review articles and he takes the editorial decision. As soon as the editorial office of CMLS receives the accepted reviews from the guest editor, they are acknowledged immediately. The corresponding authors of the reviews accepted for publication are entitled to receive five copies of the full issue at no cost. Reprints may be ordered at a charge Preparation of manuscripts Authorship: It is understood that the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the agreement of all co-authors of the manuscript submitted to CMLS. Submission of the manuscripts implies that (submitted) manuscripts have not been published, nor will be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. A covering letter should contain a statement to that effect. Presentation: Reviews should be presented as overviews of recent progress in research fields of general interest. Format of review manuscripts The title page should include a title as short as possible (max. 1 line) which does not contain any abbreviations, the author's name, affiliation, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address (if available), as well as a running title (max. 5 words). A short, self-explanatory abstract of 100-150 words should be submitted on a separate page followed by a brief listing of carefully selected key words (5-8). The length of a review should not exceed 16 manuscript pages (including figures, figure legends, tables and references). Abbreviations should be avoided in the title and abstract. They may be used in the abstract if they are defined when first used by placing them in brackets after the full term. Tables, figures and figure legends should all be presented on separate pages at the end of the article. They should be numbered in arabic numerals. As figures may be reduced for printing, the lettering should not be too small. Drawings should be on good quality paper and marked clearly in black. Authors are welcome to submit color illustrations, which may be included at the discretion of the editors. All data should be expressed in units conforming to the Syst鋗e International (SI). Please avoid footnotes. It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce original or modified material that has previously been published. References The literature should be referred to by numbers in the text in square brackets. In the bibliography, the references should be listed in order of appearance and should contain full article titles, chapter titles of books as well as first and last pages of each article cited. Journal abbreviations should follow Index Medicus style. 'Unpublished observations' may be mentioned in the text but have no place in the references. Papers 'in press' may be cited provided the publishing journal is named. References to manuscripts 'submitted' or 'in preparation' are not acceptable. For references that list more than six authors, include the first six only, followed by 'et al.' Examples: 1 Di Cera E., Dang Q. D. and Ayala Y. M. (1997) Molecular mechanisms of thrombin function. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 53: 701-730 2 Cahill M. A., Janknecht R. and Nordheim A. (1995) Signal uptake by the c-fos serum response element. In: Inducible Gene Expression, vol. 2, pp. 39-73, Baeuerle P.A. (ed.), Birkh酳ser Verlag, Basel Submission of manuscripts (to the coordinator) Manuscripts should be written in English. All text, including figure legends, tables and references, should be typed double-spaced. Please submit two paper copies along with a copy on diskette or CD. Certain points must be taken into consideration: Texts on diskette/CD should be delivered in either DOS or Macintosh format. They should be saved and delivered in two separate versions: 1. with standard text format as offered by your word processing program, and 2. in addition in Rich Text Format (RTF) or, as a last resort, as an ASCII file. Numerous word processing programs offer these options when saving the text. The final hard copy of the manuscript should be submitted together with the diskette/CD. The electronic and printed versions must be absolutely identical. All pictorial and graphic illustrations should be delivered as hard copy originals and must be 200% of the final printed size. Digital drawings and graphs should be submitted in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) or Tag Image File Format (TIFF) form. Do not fail to include a hard copy for ready viewing. Keeping back-ups is the responsibility of the authors. Diskettes/CDs must be adequately protected for transport. Letters and Comments In addition to manuscripts, letters or comments on an article published in the past 6 months in CMLS are welcome and may appear in print in one of the following issues. Letters and comments can be edited and shortened for reasons of clarity and space. Each comment will be sent to the corresponding author of the discussed article together with an invitation to respond. The comment and the reply may be sent to an independent referee. However, the editor-in-chief will make the final decision whether the correspondence will be published. CMLS allows the original author a deadline of two weeks to reply. If no answer is received within this timeframe, the editor-in-chief will decide if the letter or comment will be published without response. In order to avoid long disputes, only the original comment together with the response of the author will be published. Any additional comments or remarks should be sent to the authors directly and will not further be handled by CMLS. Letters and comments should not exceed more than 2-3 typed, double spaced pages. A maximum of 5 references should not be exceeded.Figures should be avoided, unless there is a special need to clarify the written content. Only black and white figures are accepted. A separate page should include a short title, the name and affiliations of the writer, as well as the exact citation of the article commented on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMLS Birkh?user Verlag AG Editorial Office P.O. Box 133 CH-4010 Basel Tel.: +41 61 205 07 68 Fax: +41 61 205 07 95 e-mail: CMLSedit@birkhauser.ch