A B S T R A C T Mean stress effects in finite-life fatigue are studied for a number of sets of experimental data for steels, aluminium alloys and one titanium alloy. Specifically, the agreement with these data is examined for the Goodman, Morrow, Smith-Watson-Topper and Walker equations. The Goodman relationship is found to be highly inaccurate. Reasonable accuracy is provided by the Morrow and by the Smith-Watson-Topper equations. But the Morrow method should not be used for aluminium alloys unless the true fracture strength is employed, instead of the more usual use of the stress-life intercept constant. The Walker equation with its adjustable fitting parameter γ gives superior results. For steels, γ is found to correlate with the ultimate tensile strength, and a linear relationship permits γ to be estimated for cases where non-zero mean stress data are not available.Relatively high-strength aluminium alloys have γ ≈ 0.5, which corresponds with the SWT method, but higher values of γ apply for relatively low-strength aluminium alloys.For both steels and aluminium alloys, there is a trend of decreasing γ with increasing strength, indicating an increasing sensitivity to mean stress.A = intercept constant at 1 cycle for a stress-life curve b = exponent constant for a stress-life curve b w = exponent constant for a Walker method stress-life fit c = exponent constant for a plastic strain versus life curve d = intercept constant for multiple linear regression E = elastic modulus m 1 , m 2 = slope constants for multiple linear regression n = number of data points for an s z calculation N * = life for a given ε a for the σ m = 0 case N * w = value of N * from the Walker method N f = fatigue life; cycles to failure R = stress ratio, R = σ min /σ max s z = stress deviation; the standard deviation of z for a set of data z = normalized stress-direction deviation of a data point relative to a stress-life curve σ = stress range, σ = 2σ a ε a = strain amplitude ε ar = strain amplitude for σ m = 0 ε f = intercept constant at 1/2 cycle for a plastic strain versus life curve Correspondence: N. E. Dowling.