From september 5 until september 9, 1968, the ivth colloquium on variable stars was held in budapest, hungary. the colloquium was organized by a committee consisting of g. h. herbig (president), a. boyarchuk, m. w. feast, d. mcnamara, j. e. merrill, d. j. k. o'connell, v. tsessevich, w. wenzel. the local organization was placed in the hands of a committee consist­ ing of members of the konkoly observatory, budapest: l. detre (chairman), 1. almar, julia balazs-detre, k. barlai, m. ill, s. kany6, m. lovas and of j. kovacs (hungarian academy of sciences). the colloquium was attended by about 90 scientists representing argentina, austria, bulgaria, canada, france, gdr, gfr, hungary, italy, the netherlands, poland, roumania, south africa, sweden, united kingdom, u.s.a., u.s.s.r. as chairmen acted at the sessions: m. w. feast, g. h. herbig, j. sahade, a. boyarchuk, w. wenzel, f.b. wood and l. rosino. the contents of the present volume parallel closely the programme of the individual sessions of the colloquium.