Abstract: The highly cited researchers have a certain endogenous promotion effect and exogenous halo effect for scholars. So does being accredited enhance the productivity and impact of academics? If so, is that positive impact prevalent among the vast majority of award-winning researchers? The paper examines the relationship between highly cited researchers and academic productivity and impact at both an aggregate and individual level, using output data from Clarivate Analytics mathematics disciplines' highly cited researchers. Based on the overall average output of highly cited researchers versus individual output time series curve, the paper analyzes four career paths of highly cited researchers in China. The study found that being rated as a highly cited researchers has a certain facilitating effect on the influence of researchers. After researchers in mathematical disciplines received the highly cited researcher designation, the output of the papers did not increase but decreased, but the impact of the papers increased significantly.