Is Sustainability a Good Journal? An Honest Take on MDPI Publishing
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Quick answer: Sustainability is a legitimate, indexed open-access journal published by MDPI (IF 3.3, 2024 JCR). ~60% acceptance rate. It's appropriate for applied sustainability research, environmental policy work, and lifecycle assessment studies. The main trade-off: lower prestige than established environmental journals, plus MDPI reputation baggage in some circles.
Related: Sustainability journal guide • How to choose a journal
The MDPI question
Sustainability is legitimate, but publishing with MDPI has reputation considerations. Some hiring committees perceive MDPI journals as easier to publish in due to high acceptance rates. Before submitting, consider whether your CV context makes MDPI publishing appropriate.
What Sustainability actually is
Sustainability is an open-access journal launched in 2009 and published by MDPI. The journal covers environmental sustainability, social sustainability, economic sustainability, and related topics. It's legitimate, indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Articles are peer reviewed. The issue is not quality control but prestige and perception.
MDPI reputation issues
Fair criticisms: MDPI journals have high acceptance rates (50-70%), MDPI grew rapidly potentially affecting peer review quality, MDPI is profit-driven with commercial incentives, and some journals have less rigorous editorial oversight than traditional publishers.
Unfair criticisms: MDPI journals aren't predatory, they do real peer review, they're indexed in major databases, and open access via MDPI isn't inherently lower quality.
The numbers
Impact factor: 3.3 (2024 JCR), Q2 in environmental science. Acceptance rate: 50-70%, estimated around 60%. Publication speed: MDPI is notably faster than traditional publishers. Open access: All papers are open access.
Bottom line
Sustainability is legitimate (IF 3.3, 2024 JCR) with ~60% acceptance. It's appropriate for applied sustainability research from researchers who understand it's middle-tier in prestige. If your work is strong and you're in applied sustainability, Sustainability is fine. If you want maximum prestige, consider traditional publishers.
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