Sustainability Cover Letter: What Editors Actually Need to See
Sustainability publishes across an enormous range of topics. A cover letter that names the right section and states a concrete sustainability finding is the fastest way through triage.
Senior Researcher, Chemistry
Author context
Specializes in manuscript preparation and peer review strategy for chemistry journals, with deep experience evaluating submissions to JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Reviews, and ACS-family journals.
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How to use this page well
These pages work best when they behave like tools, not essays. Use the quick structure first, then apply it to the exact journal and manuscript situation.
Question | What to do |
|---|---|
Use this page for | Getting the structure, tone, and decision logic right before you send anything out. |
Most important move | Make the reviewer-facing or editor-facing ask obvious early rather than burying it in prose. |
Common mistake | Turning a practical page into a long explanation instead of a working template or checklist. |
Next step | Use the page as a tool, then adjust it to the exact manuscript and journal situation. |
Quick answer: a strong Sustainability cover letter names the target MDPI section, states a concrete sustainability-related finding, and shows the submission is complete. This journal's scope is extraordinarily broad -- engineering, economics, ecology, education, policy -- so the editor's first job is routing. Help them do it fast.
What the official sources do and do not tell you
The official Sustainability pages describe the MDPI submission workflow and list section scopes, but they do not prescribe a specific cover-letter format.
What the journal model does imply is clear:
- the manuscript should connect to sustainability in a substantive way, not just mention the word
- the editor needs section routing information immediately
- the letter should reduce friction in a very high-volume editorial workflow
That means section selection and scope clarity matter more here than at almost any other MDPI journal, precisely because the scope is so wide.
What the editor is really screening for
At triage, the academic editor is usually asking:
- does this paper have a real sustainability dimension, or does it just use the word in the title?
- does it fit the section the author selected?
- does the submission look complete enough to send to reviewers without administrative delays?
- is the contribution clear enough to justify review at a broad-scope journal?
A cover letter that answers these questions in the first few sentences clears triage fastest.
A practical template you can adapt
Dear Editor,
We submit the manuscript "[TITLE]" for consideration in the
[SECTION NAME] section of Sustainability.
This study addresses [specific sustainability problem or
question]. We show that [main finding], with relevance to
[policy, practice, or sustainability outcome].
The manuscript fits Sustainability because it examines
[environmental / social / economic sustainability dimension]
rather than treating sustainability as a background framing.
We selected the [SECTION NAME] section because [one-sentence
justification].
The work is original, not under consideration elsewhere, and
approved by all authors.
Sincerely,
[Name]The section-naming sentence is especially important here because the journal's scope is so broad that an unrouted paper can sit in limbo.
Mistakes that make these letters weak
- never naming the target section in a journal with dozens of possible sections
- using generic sustainability rhetoric without stating a specific finding
- submitting a paper from another discipline and adding the word "sustainable" to the title
- making the letter too long for a high-volume MDPI editorial workflow
- failing to state which dimension of sustainability (environmental, social, economic) the paper addresses
These mistakes slow triage or trigger desk rejection.
What should drive the submission decision instead
Before polishing the letter further, confirm the journal fit. Sustainability is broad but still requires a genuine sustainability dimension -- papers that belong in a disciplinary journal and have only a superficial sustainability framing will struggle regardless of letter quality. Check the journal's own author guidelines and browse recent papers in your target section to verify alignment.
Practical verdict
The strongest Sustainability cover letters are short, section-specific, and sustainability-focused. They tell the editor where to route the paper and what the sustainability finding is.
So the useful takeaway is this: name your section, state the sustainability result, and keep the letter operationally clean. A free Manusights scan is the fastest way to pressure-test that framing before submission.
Sources
- 1. Sustainability instructions for authors, MDPI.
- 2. Sustainability section list and scope, MDPI.
- 3. MDPI editorial process, MDPI.
- 4. MDPI publishing policies, MDPI.
Reference library
Use the core publishing datasets alongside this guide
This article answers one part of the publishing decision. The reference library covers the recurring questions that usually come next: how selective journals are, how long review takes, and what the submission requirements look like across journals.
Dataset / reference guide
Peer Review Timelines by Journal
Reference-grade journal timeline data that authors, labs, and writing centers can cite when discussing realistic review timing.
Dataset / benchmark
Biomedical Journal Acceptance Rates
A field-organized acceptance-rate guide that works as a neutral benchmark when authors are deciding how selective to target.
Reference table
Journal Submission Specs
A high-utility submission table covering word limits, figure caps, reference limits, and formatting expectations.
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