“The structure is related to the scholarly outcome.”

structure means the relatively enduring institutional and social arrangements within which scholars operate.

For example:

universities;

funding systems;

journals;

peer-review procedures;

academic departments;

professional associations;

curricula;

promotion systems;

citation practices;

research grants;

government research priorities.

What is “scholarly outcome”?

An outcome is what eventually emerges from the scholarly process.

Examples:

which subjects receive extensive research;

which interpretations become dominant;

which scholars become prominent;

which books are frequently cited;

which topics enter university curricula;

which arguments are accepted as legitimate;

which interpretations receive repeated publication.

So suppose you discover:

Universities repeatedly fund research on Topic A but rarely fund Topic B.

and:

Journals consequently contain many studies of Topic A but very few of Topic B.

Then you could investigate whether:

The institutional funding structure is related to the scholarly outcome—the unequal amount of research produced on A and B.

“Related” is deliberately weaker than “caused.”

You might eventually establish causation, but you should not assume it merely because the two patterns coexist.