Last January, I wrote an editorial to mark the twenty-fifth year of publication of Materials Science and Technology. This year, I want to publicise two further ventures, related to the journal and its 'silver anniversary'. The first is the decision by Maney to digitise and make available online the full range of articles in MST, back to the first issue in 1985; and also the full content of MST's ancestor Metal Science Journal (MS). The second is the commissioning for MST of a select number of '25 year perspectives'. These will review advances in a particular topic over the preceding 25 years, but with an emphasis on the current state and on where that topic may develop in the future. The first two of these will be on 'Exchange coupled nanocomposite hard magnetic alloys', by Israel Betancourt and Hywel Davies, 1 and 'Miniaturised testing for engineering metals and ceramics' by Bryan Roebuck and colleagues (to appear in February). 2 The placing of MS online provides ready access to some 8000 pages of articles published between 1967 and 1984. In recognition of this, I have been asked to write something about the journal and, perhaps more controversially, draw up a selection of papers for 'highly recommended' re-reading. Such papers may have made a memorable impression when first encountered; they may have put forward new ideas that have stood the test of time; they may represent the 'state of the art' at the time written, and so hold historical interest. My list concentrates on papers dealing with fracture mechanisms in engineering alloys. The plan is to encourage my colleagues on the Editorial Board, and perhaps others, similarly to comment on papers in their own areas of special interest. My selection is highly personal: other selections are likely to be equally personal, and I apologise in advance to those who might feel aggrieved if they have not received mention. A limited amount of informed comment from the general readership could perhaps also be accommodated as a list of independent recommendations: rather like the comments written by last year's holiday-makers on a hotel's website. Many of the papers selected will be made generally accessible to readers for a initial period.