# An introduction to REST

**REST** is the abbreviation of _Representational State Transfer_. The term **REST** was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation, [Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures](http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm). For Chinese users, you can find a [Chinese translation copy](http://www.infoq.com/cn/minibooks/dissertation-rest-cn) from [InfoQ.com](http://www.infoq.com).
