J. Matthias Starck comprehensively guides the reader in this essential through all steps of writing an expert review for a scientific journal. It is built on a succinct analysis how science works, how science is communicated and how science is published. It provides a critical guide how to write good, informative and fair peer reviews. The author presents a critical discussion of different peer review procedures and their alternatives, explains ethical guidelines as well as the dark sides of scientific publishing. So this essential helps the reader to perform better in the existing system and to contribute to its further development and improvement.

Although birds have a rather uniform body plan and physiology, they exhibit marked variation in development type, parental care, and rate of growth. This makes them ideal for studying and understanding evolutionary adaptation. Presenting an integrative perspective of organism biology, ecology, and evolution, this book is a case study in evolutionary diversification of life histories.

1. 1 Objectives of this Study The vertebrate middle ear has attracted the interest of morphologists for more than a century. Its difficult structure, its complicated evolutionary derivation, and its integration of branchial, cranial, and otic materials into a single func- tional unit have made it a key organ for the understanding of vertebrate structures and their evolutionary history. Gaupp's (1898, 1913) and Reichert's (1837) comparative morphological studies of the vertebrate middle ear repre- sented milestones for anatomy in the general recognition and acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution. These fundamental studies notwithstanding, today's knowledge of avian middle ear structures is still characterized by descriptive studies focusing on character sampling to elucidate high-level phylogeny. Phylogenetic studies have considered either structural aspects of the bony stapes exclusively (Feduccia 1974, 1975a,b, 1976, 1977, 1978), or focused on the anatomy of the middle ear cavity, neglecting the sound trans- mission apparatus (Saiff 1974, 1976, 1978a,b, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988). Other studies have investigated late-stage embryos and concentrated on the develop- ment of the skull, considering middle ear structures only as a side aspect. However, there are considerable structural differences between the middle ears of late-stage embryos, hatchlings, and adults of the same species. Although vertebrate morphology requires a meticulous knowledge of comparative middle ear data and calls upon an elaborate system of homologies, it turns out that knowledge of middle ear structural details is widely dispersed among different species and different developmental stages, making a comparison even more difficult.

J. Matthias Starck fuhrt den Leser in diesem essential durch alle Schritte des Schreibens eines Peer Reviews fur eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift. Es baut auf einer pragnanten Analyse auf, wie Wissenschaft funktioniert, wie sie kommuniziert und wie sie veroeffentlicht wird. Der Autor diskutiert verschiedene Peer-Review-Verfahren und deren moegliche Alternativen, ethische Leitlinien ebenso wie die ,dunklen Seiten' des wissenschaftlichen Publizierens. Damit hilft dieses essential dem Leser, im bestehenden System erfolgreich zu arbeiten sowie zu seiner weiteren Entwicklung und Verbesserung beizutragen.