Odd crime newspaper picked up, involving university lecturer (8)
I believe the answer is:
singular
'odd' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'crime newspaper picked up involving university lecturer' is the wordplay.
'crime' becomes 'sin'.
'newspaper' becomes 'rag' (informal term for a newspaper).
'picked up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'involving' is an insertion indicator.
'university lecturer' becomes 'ul' (this could be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
'rag' backwards is 'gar'.
'gar' placed around 'ul' is 'gular'.
'sin'+'gular'='SINGULAR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for singular that I've seen before include "Remarkable; not plural" , "Referring to one thing" , "Extraordinary - just one (8)" , "number" , "Unusual, striking, or unique" .)