The present status of research on hydrocarbon generation by catalysis in the process of thermal modeling is reviewed briefly in this paper and a new method and a new experimental scheme are proposed in order to quantitatively study the mechanism and process of hydrocarbon generation by catalysis, to set up quantitative mathematical models of the catalytic reaction rate and hydrocarbon generation rate, to develop feasible computer softwares, and finally to distinguish catalysts and anticatalysts. In this study, the catalysis of all clay minerals in source rocks and inorganic salts in oil-field water on hydrocarbon generation is taken into consideration, i. e. the effects of every single catalyst and various catalyst combinations on hydrocarbon generation are analyzed systematically.