Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] In the context of China's emphasis on talent construction and the vigorous development of the global iSchools movement, in order to promote the future development of research communities in the field of LIS, this study takes the iSchools as an example of research community and explores the cognitive differences about research community of iSchools' Chinese and foreign early career researchers（ECRs）. [Design/Methodology] We proposed a research framework of research community with six elements: community role, community identity, community engagement, community support, community cohesion and community needs. Based on a questionnaire survey of Chinese and foreign ECRs' cognition on iSchools community and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, ECRs' cognitive differences and similarities on the six elements of research community were compared, and the possible connections between these elements were analyzed. [Findings/Conclusion] The results show that compared with foreign ECRs, domestic ECRs have lower cognition of iSchools' community role, community identity and community engagement, but higher cognition of community support, community cohesion and community needs. There are significant connections between the six elements of research community. [Originality/Value] This study analyzes the connections among community role, community identity, community engagement, community support, community cohesion and community needs from the perspective of ECRs in the field of LIS, and provide reference for future construction of iSchools research communities.

Key words: Research community, Early career researchers, iSchools organization, China-foreign comparison study