The subject of analysis in the article is science as a non-homogeneous social institution with a very complex system of formal and informal relations and relationships, and the mechanisms of its reproduction on the example of the functioning of the scientific community as a professional disciplinary community. The author shows that the collective memory of the scientific community can set a meaningful semantic framework for ideas about the past in the development of particular scientific areas, schools, institutions, and the professional path of scientific leaders. The article considers the cultural, communicative and historical components of the collective memory of the scientific community in the context of the history of its formation and the development of the modern system of science organization. It includes the digital environment too, the forms and mechanisms of its functioning, the features of the hierarchy and, of course, the phenomenon of collective knowledge and channels of knowledge transfer, traditions, generational dynamics that contribute to the formation of collective memory among members of this community. The author offers an interpretation of the categories of collective memory, collective identity, and collective trauma of the scientific community as constructed, implementing a particular model of perception of the past through the selection of some events and the oblivion of others. The social and political context of the functioning of the scientific community, in this case, is a key aspect in the process of conceptualization of these concepts, since the past determines the identification requirements of the studied community, often becoming the object of both internal and external manipulations. The rising fundamental question is about the need for methodological elaboration of approaches to the study of the collective memory of the scientific community as a mnemonic.