Popular sci-fi writer peripherally scans Scottish city (9)
I believe the answer is:
inverness
'scottish city' is the definition.
(Inverness is a city in Scotland)
'popular sci-fi writer peripherally scans' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in' ('in' can mean trendy).
'sci-fi writer' becomes 'Verne' (Jules Verne).
'peripherally' suggests removing the centre (only the 'peripheral' letters in the word are kept).
'scans' with its centre removed is 'ss'.
'in'+'verne'+'ss'='INVERNESS'
(Other definitions for inverness that I've seen before include "Scottish Highlands city" , "northern city" , "Highland city" , "overcoat" , "Highland region town" .)