Organic-rich sedimentary rocks are abundant in the rock record and have played a major role in long-term carbon burial, act as important hydrocarbon source-rocks, and may form important reservoirs in shale gas systems. Almost always fine-grained in nature, the details of their sedimentology, diagenetic history, and geochemistry are only now being appreciated through the application of both basin-scale sedimentological study, and high resolution geochemical and petrographic analytical techniques. This session aims to bring together researchers working on organic-rich marine and lacustrine sedimentary rocks, and will highlight the current state of knowledge of the specific sedimentological, palaeontological and geochemical processes that gave rise to their formation and the overarching climate controls that led to their longer term variability to enable the palaeo-environmental information that they contain to be more effectively unlocked.