The centrality indexes of cooperation network are more and more applied in the identification of academic leaders in research teams. However, it is not proved whether the centrality indexes can identify academic leaders accurately and completely. To validate this issue, the competency of academic leaders is concluded, and a theoretical analysis is taken to prove that whether the centrality indexes can measure the competency of academic leaders. Then scientific results of 14 research teams are collected from National Natural Science Foundation of China, and an empirical analysis is taken based on these data in order to validate whether the centrality indexes can measure the academic leaders effectively.