Religious female published Channel Islands study (10)
I believe the answer is:
franciscan
'religious' is the definition.
(Franciscan is an example)
'female published channel islands study' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'published' becomes 'ran' (running is a kind of publishing).
'channel islands' becomes 'ci'.
'study' becomes 'scan' (I've seen this before).
'f'+'ran'+'ci'+'scan'='FRANCISCAN'
(Other definitions for franciscan that I've seen before include "Grey Friar" , "The sort of friar" , "brother or sister" , "one's in order" , "Type of monk" .)