Abstract: The series of Reports on Overseas Visits and Investigations is an important source material reflecting China’s international scientific and technical exchanges and information work. It was compiled and published by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China from 1961 to 1983, and altogether included more than 600 reports. With the breakdown of Sino-Soviet scientific and technological cooperation, China’s international science and technology exchanges encountered unprecedented challenges since the beginning of the 1960s. As the national center for science and technology information, the newly established Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China published the information of each year’s overseas visits, thus forming a series of Reports on Overseas Visits and Investigations. A preliminary analysis of these reports shows that in the 1960s and 1970s, the main source countries of China’s international scientific and technical information were Japan, the United Kingdom, France etc. Meanwhile, the important sources of information shifted from the Soviet Union to the United States. As a production of certain social circumstances, the Reports implies the various trends and characteristics of China’s scientific and technical disciplinary development and changes in industrial demand.

Key Words: Reports on Overseas Visits and Investigations; Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China; International science and technology exchanges; International scientific and technical information