Abstract: Analyzing the gender differences in the academic performance of the scientific funding’s project principle investigators is of great importance for extending relevant research perspectives and future formulation of policy on researchers’ evaluation. Taking the principle investigators in Management Science granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2017 as research objects, we investigate the gender differences in research productivity and impact with the data of funded publications and resume information of principal investigators. The results indicate that: 1) from the perspective of papers' characteristics: the number of coauthors and the degree of internationalization of female principal investigators are significantly higher than those of males. The male principal investigators’ outputs have more diversified funding from other sources, while the publications of females are mostly funded by their own funding. 2) From the perspective of the papers’ impact, the academic impact of male project leaders is higher than those of females, and the number of Mendeley audiences is also larger than their female colleagues’. However, it is notable that female project leaders attract more social media attention. This study provides a relatively comprehensive comparative analysis of the academic performance between female and male project principal investigators, which might provide a better understanding of the characteristics between researchers of different genders for policymakers and further help them formulate targeted policies to promote the S&T innovation and social development.

Key words: Gender differences, Scientific funding, Project leaders, Academic performance, Social impact, Academic evaluation