Most of the analysis on promissory notes is academic (8)
I believe the answer is:
studious
'is academic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'most of the analysis on promissory notes' is the wordplay.
'most of' means to remove the last letter.
'the analysis' becomes 'study' (I've seen this before).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'promissory notes' becomes 'ious' (IOU is an example).
'study' with its final letter removed is 'stud'.
'stud'+'ious'='STUDIOUS'
(Other definitions for studious that I've seen before include "Bookish, scholarly" , "Bookish, sedulous" , "Given to serious reading" , "Diligent, assiduous" , "working hard" .)