The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and Elsevier are pleased to announce publication of the new ERC Guidelines for cardiopulmonary and cerebral resuscitation (CPR). The ERC Guidelines will be published as a Supplement to the journal RESUSCITATION (December 2005) and will also appear in book format. This document (an update of the earlier version fo the CPR Guidelines published in 2000) will present the currently prevailing knowledge and procedures for resuscitation medicine. It will be a primary source of information and reference for all those who are involved in resuscitation practice, training and education. The ERC has composed the new Guidelines Document, based on the Consensus on Science developed at the 2005 CoSTR1 Conference held in Dallas (USA) in January 2005. This Conference, under the auspices of ILCOR2, was the culmination of a series of meetings during which international experts in the fields of Basic Life Support, Electrical Therapies, Advanced Life Support, Paediatric Life Support, Neonatal Life Support, Acute Coronary Syndromes, Stroke Medicine, Ethics, and Training methods in Resuscitation, discussed and evaluated the available scientific evidence. The results of this conference are summarised in the CoSTR Document3, which is the scientific basis for the ERC Guidelines 2005. The ERC Guidelines 2005 will provide an easily comprehensible and practicable framework for the emergency care health professional working in Europe and beyond. 1 CoSTR - Consensus on CPR and ECC Science with Treatment Recommendations 2 ILCOR - International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation 3 The CoSTR Document will be published in the November 2005 issue of RESUSCITATIONwritten by key experts in the field of resuscitation medicine presents the most current scientific information available covers background knowledge, processes and algorithms for cardiac arrest in adults, children and the newborn