Scientific article recommends starting to eat fish (7)
I believe the answer is:
sardine
'fish' is the definition.
(sardine is a type of fish)
'scientific article recommends starting to eat' is the wordplay.
'starting' says to take the initial letters.
'to eat' becomes 'dine' (to dine is to eat a meal).
The first letters of 'scientific article recommends' is 'sar'.
'sar'+'dine'='SARDINE'
(Other definitions for sardine that I've seen before include "Small pilchard" , "A diner's small fish" , "Fish (often tinned)" , "Fish in tin?" , "Young pilchard" .)