SISU advocates academic research. Especially in recent years, constant achievements have been made in academic research. The academic papers, books, textbooks and reference books have won many awards in nationwide appraisals.
SISU has one national research center of humanities & social sciences (Middle Eastern Studies Institute), one undergraduate education base of non-universal languages (Italian, Portuguese and Greek), two national key programs (English and Russian), one national developing key program (Arabic), and two Shanghai key programs (Arabic and international relations). Now SISU is a major unit of the Ministry of National Education of the University of Foreign Language Teaching Steering Committee.

More than ten research institutes and academic groups have been established, including the Research Institute of International Relations and Foreign Affairs, Middle Eastern Studies Institute, Institute of Linguistic Studies, Institute of Literature Studies, the SISU Intercultural Institute, the America Research Center, Canada Research Center, German Region Research Center, New Zealand Research Center, etc. The scope of research includes foreign language and literature, international politics, economics, and cultures.

SISU also publishes many influential Chinese journals (listed in the CSSCI), including  the Journal of Foreign Languages, Foreign Language World, International Observation, Arabic World Research, and Educational Technology for Foreign Language Teaching. A new co-sponsored international journal has also been launched, the Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (in Asia).