[Purpose/significance] This article analyzes the characteristics and differences of literature demands among domestic and international interdisciplinary researchers, in order to provide a basis for the literature guarantee of interdisciplinary research and to promote cooperation in international interdisciplinary researches.[Method/process] This article analyzes the characteristics and differences in domestic and international research over the issue of the South China Sea dispute from the aspects of age distribution, citation frequency, subject distribution and publishing institution by using citation analysis. Journals and books cited in the related articles in CSSCI and Web of Science from 1998 to 2016 are samples in this research.[Result/conclusion] The domestic researchers have a high degree of dependence on new Chinese journals and classic foreign books, Chinese books lack of international recognition. The South China Sea dispute research is biased towards the field of humanities and social sciences as a whole, but the international research is more extensive and balanced in the distribution of citation subjects. Authoritative and mainstream publishing houses are common choices between domestic and foreign research, a small number publishers of research institution also catch researchers' attention.