[Purpose/significance] By analyzing the research status of the academic life cycle, this paper analyzes problems and omissions in the current research, and puts forward the improvement direction and research points. [Method/process] After analyzing the feature and influence factors of the academic life cycle, this paper referred to the characteristics of the current research. [Result/conclusion] There are existing problems. First, the current research takes the qualitative analysis, lacking enough quantitative analysis. Second, it only takes the long term and single factor into consideration. Third, the current research ignores the difference among subjects. Last, there are bias and limitations during the sample selecting. This paper offers advice for the country, institutes and researchers by getting the law of researchers’ career, which comes from the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods with data analyses with the consideration of the difference of disciplines and the scientific research group.