Thermochimica Acta has been serving the thermal science community for 40 years and has now published its 500th volume. The editors provide a brief overview of the highly cited papers published by the journal. Analysis of the topics of the highly cited papers suggests that Thermochimica Acta possesses major strength in the areas of instrumentation, materials, and kinetics. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.