Each paper needs an abstract of up to 200 words. It should be structured as follows: Background/Aims: What is the major problem that prompted the study? Methods: How was the study performed? Results: Most important findings? Conclusion: Most important conclusion? Footnotes: Avoid footnotes. Tables and illustrations: Tables and illustrations (both numbered in Arabic numerals) should be prepared on separate pages. Tables require a heading and figures a legend, also prepared on a separate page. Due to technical reasons, figures with a screen background should not be submitted. When possible, group several illustrations in one block for reproduction (max. size 180 223 mm) or provide crop marks. Each illustration must be labelled with its number and the first author’s name. B/w half-tone and color illustrations must have a final resolution of 300 dpi after scaling, line drawings one of 800–1,200 dpi. Figure files must not be embedded in a document file but submitted separately (see detailed instructions on the Submission Website at www.karger.com/dig). Color illustrations Online edition: Color illustrations are reproduced free of charge. In the print version, the illustrations are reproduced in black and white. Please avoid referring to the colors in the text and figure legends. Print edition: Up to 6 color illustrations per page can be integrated within the text at CHF 800.– per page. References: In the text identify references by Arabic numerals [in square brackets]. Material submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be noted as ‘unpublished data’ and not be included in the reference list. The list of references should include only those publications which are cited in the text. Do not alphabetize; number references in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. The surnames of the authors followed by initials should be given. There should be no punctuation other than a comma to separate the authors. Preferably, please cite all authors. Abbreviate journal names according to the Index Medicus system. Also see International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (www.icmje.org) Examples (a) Papers published in periodicals: Chatel J-M, Bernard H, Orson FM: Isolation and characterization of two complete Ara h 2 isoforms cDNA. Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2003;131:14–18. (b) Papers published only with DOI numbers: Theoharides TC, Boucher W, Spear K: Serum interleu kin-6 reflects disease severity and osteoporosis in mastocytosis patients. Int Arch Allergy Immunol DOI: 10.1159/000063858. (c) Monographs: Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Understanding Medical Statistics, ed 3, revised. Basel, Karger, 1996. (d) Edited books: DuBois RN: Cyclooxygenase-2 and colorectal cancer; in Dannenberg AJ, Dubois RN (eds): COX2. Prog Exp Tum Res. Basel, Karger, 2003, vol 37, pp 124–137. Reference Management Software: Use of EndNote is recommended for easy management and formatting of citations and reference lists. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) S. Karger Publishers supports DOIs as unique identifiers for articles. A DOI number will be printed on the title page of each article. DOIs can be useful in the future for identifying and citing articles published online without volume or issue information. More information can be found at www.doi.org. Supplementary Material Supplementary material is restricted to additional data that are not necessary for the scientific integrity and conclusions of the paper. Please note that all supplementary files will undergo editorial review and should be submitted together with the original manuscript. The Editors reserve the right to limit the scope and length of the supplementary material. Supplementary material must meet production quality standards for Web publication without the need for any modification or editing. In general, supplementary files should not exceed 10 MB in size. All figures and tables should have titles and legends and all files should be supplied separately and named clearly. Acceptable files and formats are: Word or PDF files, Excel spreadsheets (only if the data cannot be converted properly to a PDF file), and video files (.mov, .avi, .mpeg). Author’s ChoiceTM Karger’s Author’s ChoiceTM service broadens the reach of your article and gives all users worldwide free and full access for reading, downloading and printing at www.karger.com. The option is available for a one-time fee of CHF 3000.–, which is a permissible cost in grant allocation. More information can be found at www.karger.com/authors_choice. NIH-Funded Research The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandates under the NIH Public Access Policy that final, peer-reviewed manuscripts appear in its digital database within 12 months of the official publication date. As a service to authors, Karger submits the final version of your article on your behalf to PubMed Central. For those selecting our premium Author’s ChoiceTM service, we will send your article immediately upon publishing, accelerating the accessibility of your work without the usual embargo. More details on NIH’s Public Access Policy is available at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm. Self-Archiving Karger permits authors to archive their pre-prints (i.e. prerefereeing) or post-prints (i.e. final draft post-refereeing) on their personal or institution’s servers, provided the following conditions are met: Articles may not be used for commercial purposes, must be linked to the publisher’s version, and must acknowledge the publisher’s copyright. Authors selecting Karger’s Author’s ChoiceTM feature, however, are also permitted to archive the final, published version of their article, which includes copyediting and design improvements as well as citation links. Page Charges There are no page charges for papers of 3 or fewer printed pages (including tables, illustrations and references). Each additional complete or partial page is charged to the author at CHF 325.–. The allotted size of a paper is equal to approx. 10 manuscript pages (including tables, illustrations and references). Proofs Unless indicated otherwise, proofs are sent to the corresponding author and should be returned with the least possible delay. Alterations other than the correction of printer’s errors are charged to the author. Reprints Order forms and a price list are sent with the proofs. Orders submitted after the issue is printed are subject to considerably higher prices.