The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and for universities in the Commonwealth nations like some in Australia and New Zealand, denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship.

It is an academic rank above senior lecturer (or principal lecturer in the New Universities) and below Professor. However, an incompatibility of ranking systems between different (English speaking) countries, make the position of reader difficult to place outside the context of the United Kingdom. As a Professor normally holds a Chair in a particular field, a Reader could be seen as professor without chair, similar to the distinction between Professor ordinarius and Professor extraordinarius at some European Universities. In the United Kingdom, the promotion criteria applied to a Readership are similar to those applied to a Professorship.^[1][2][3][4]

In Australia, academic ranks are now labelled "Level A" (Associate Lecturer) through to "Level E" (Professor). "Level D" is Associate Professor, but in some universities the term "Reader" is used for some people promoted to this level if the promotion is essentially only on the basis of eminence in research^{[citation needed]}. This practice appears to be declining^{[citation needed]}.

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