Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the most interesting research issues in the academia and industries due to its importance in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Development of new ORR catalysts with low cost and high activity is under intensive research, but it is a time-consuming process because of wide range of alloys to be explored. Combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput screening techniques were suggested as new experimental approaches to accelerate the ORR electrocatalyst research. The combinatorial method is focused on the synthesis of concentrated arrays and quick evaluation of the arrays via various screening techniques. In this report, the combinatorial approaches for the ORR catalyst research were reviewed based on the screening methods. Four screening techniques of optical screening, scanning electrochemical microscopy, multielectrode half cell, and multielectrode full cell were introduced as the representative ones. Other approaches were also briefly introduced. Merits and limitations of each method were discussed and representative research results of each method were shown in detail. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.