The editors of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics have selected our recent paper “Understanding the effect of mechanical strains on the catalytic activity of transition metals”, published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 24, 4832–4842, 2022, as a Hot Paper and will provide open access to the article content. The paper analyses The effect of mechanical strains on the volcano plot for the HER and for the ORR was determined from first principles calculations for thirteen transition metals and provides a framework to systematically investigate the application of elastic strains in the design of new catalysts.