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• Scientists' research performance significantly affects their academic titles. • Mentor's academic titles increase a student's chance of academic success. • Mentors with academician titles have the highest moderating effects. • This is manifested through the social influence of the mentors' status. This study intends to uncover the mentorship effect by investigating the impact of mentors' academic titles and research performance on the academic success of young scientists. Drawing on the data of chemical scientists from China's 985 project universities, we demonstrate that the probability of young scientists acquiring academic success increases if their mentors are qualified Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) or Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) academicians. However, this positive effect may be insignificant or negative for improved academic performance. Additionally, the role of the mentors' research performance in moderating the relationship between the young scientists' research performance and the probability of acquiring an academic title is not significant and may even be negative. Remarkably, our empirical results suggest that mentors with a CAS or CAE academician title and an increase of the young scientists' H-index by 20 have equal effects on the probability that young scientists win an Excellent title. This raises concerns about the mentorship effect in China. The results have solid practical implications that are clarified at the end of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]