The 4th International Conference on Low Cycle Fatigue and Elasto-Plastic Behaviour of Materials was held from 7-11 September 1998 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. In response to a call for papers, nearly 200 extended abstracts from 32 countries were submitted to the organizing committee. These papers were presented at the conference as invited lectures or short contributions and as oral or poster presentation. All the papers were presented in poster form in extended poster sessions–a peculiarity of the LCF Conferences which allows an intense, thorough discussion of all contributions. Each chapter provides a comprehensive overview of a materials class or a given subject. Many contributions could have been included in two or even three chapters and so, in order to give a better overview of the content, the reader will find a subject index, a material index and an author index in the back of the book.