This paper demonstrates through a few selected examples including CO oxidation and methane oxidation over metallic catalysts the knowledge that may be obtained from the study of the oscillatory behaviour over supported and massive catalysts under atmospheric pressure conditions. The information about reaction mechanisms that can be obtained from the waveforms of reaction rate oscillations, from the phase shifts between oscillations of different products concentrations, and from visual observations of surface spatiotemporal behaviour is discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.