A US scientist of shockingly sham quality (14)

I believe the answer is:

factitiousness

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'sham quality' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'a us scientist of shockingly' is the wordplay.
'shockingly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'a'+'us'+'scientist'+'of'='ausscientistof'
'ausscientistof' anagrammed gives 'FACTITIOUSNESS'.

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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