Scholarship shown by head of Reading University in publication (9)
I believe the answer is:
erudition
'scholarship' is the definition.
('erudition' can be a synonym of 'scholarship')
'head of reading university in publication' is the wordplay.
'head of' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'publication' becomes 'edition' (edition is a kind of publication**).
The first letters of 'reading university' is 'ru'.
'ru' placed inside 'edition' is 'ERUDITION'.
'shown by' is the link.
(Other definitions for erudition that I've seen before include "being widely read" , "Knowledge, learning" , "Great knowledge" , "Great learning" , "State of learning or culture" .)