Book excerpt: This book is directed to those who are interested in petroleum geology, especially source rock from both academia and industrial societies. Our chapter-based book is written by a list of world-class subject-matter experts. The book includes recent advancements in analytical source rock characterization methods with some case studies. It is also used as part of a course curriculum or guide for source rock interpretation for all researcher categories. Significant improvement in the source rock characterization techniques in the last two decades and the knowledge is disseminated in a huge amount of papers and studies. The book intends to collect these recent advancements in one textbook to benefit students and researchers in general. In addition, it is supplemented by many case studies from all over the world that represent important data sets for the regional geology of these areas.