The failure of a ship hull girder is governed by buckling and plastic collapse of the deck, bottom and side shell steel stiffened plates. The stiffened steel plating in ships is generally subjected to both in-plane and out-of-plane loading and is more important to understand the characteristics of these panels under buckling. Tests are reported on the collapse load of stiffened plates with and without cutout and with reinforced cutout under uniaxial compression. A generalized computer program for the semi-analytical solutions proposed by various investigators based on strut approach and orthotropic plate approach, and a finite element analysis program based on orthotropic plate approach are developed. The panels are also analysed using the finite element analysis software ANSYS. An approximate method based on strut approach is proposed to calculate the collapse load of stiffened plates with cutouts and initial imperfections. The reduction in strength of the panels due to the presence of square cutout, rectangular cutout and increase in strength due to reinforcement around rectangular cutout are calculated based on the test results. Comparisons are made between the test results and predictions based on semi-analytical solutions and finite element analyses, and the uncertainty parameters calculated are discussed. Based on this study it is concluded that the cutout can be reinforced with a maximum increase in strength up to 19% for plate initiated failures. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.