Book excerpt: Every medical specialty has as its basis a core of classic papers which both reflects the historical background and gives insight into its present and future developments. The selected papers in this volume highlight landmarks in the development of critical care medicine. Internationally acclaimed experts have chosen what they consider to be the most important papers in their respective subspecialties. Each entry follows a set format, starting with the abstract and the reference to the original source of publication. This is followed by analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the paper and the contribution it has made to the development of critical care. Additional information including citation score of each paper is given together with detailed analysis of the top 500 most widely cited papers.