Sustainability (MDPI) Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

Sustainability follows the standard MDPI abstract format, which is straightforward but has specific constraints.

• Word limit: about 200 words maximum

• Structure: A single paragraph that follows the style of a structured abstract (background, methods, results, conclusion) but without headings

• Citations: MDPI's layout guide says no reference can be made to the bibliography or to figures in the abstract

• Abbreviations: Define each abbreviation the first time it appears in the abstract, in the main text, and in the first figure or table

• Keywords: 3 to 10 keywords required, listed immediately after the abstract

The abstract should summarize the background motivation in one sentence, describe the methods briefly, and present the main findings with specific quantitative results where possible. Don't end the abstract with a vague promise like "implications are discussed." State what those implications are.

MDPI recommends that keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline, so choose terms that a researcher searching for your topic would actually type. Overly broad keywords like "environment" or "sustainability" are weak choices because the journal name already covers them. Follow the keyword format shown in the MDPI template.

The Sustainability instructions publish no limit on the number of figures or tables.

Figure specifications:

Table formatting: MDPI says tables will be reformatted to the standard MDPI style before publication and the journal template provides an example. Vertical lines and blank rows or columns are not advised, color in tables is not recommended, and tables must be editable (do not supply tables as images). Table captions go above the table.

Insert figures in the main text after the paragraph of their first citation, and provide the files for figures and schemes during submission in a single zip archive, as the instructions for authors describe.

If your figure has multiple panels, label them a, b, c, d and describe each part individually in the caption, as MDPI's layout guide asks.

MDPI's layout guide also says scale bars and numbers need to be clearly identified in figures.

Sustainability uses a numbered reference style based on the ACS style. MDPI offers ACS-, Chicago- and APA-based styles across its journals, and the Sustainability instructions use the numbered one.

In-text citations: Numbers in square brackets, assigned in order of first appearance. Multiple citations are separated by commas: [1,2,3] or as a range: [1-3]. Place the citation before the period at the end of a sentence.

Reference list format:

1. Author, A.B.; Author, C.D.; Author, E.F. Title of the article. Abbreviated Journal Name Year, Volume, page range.

Key formatting details:

• Author names: Last Name, First Initial(s). Use semicolons between authors.

• Journal names are abbreviated according to the ISO 4 rules. If you are not sure how to abbreviate a title, leave the full title and the Editorial Office will abbreviate it.

• DOIs are not mandatory but are highly encouraged.

• For books: include publisher name and location (city, country).

• For web sources: include the full URL and the access date.

MDPI publishes no cap on the number of references.

One point to check: MDPI's reference guide says cited journals should be abbreviated according to the ISO 4 rules (its own example abbreviates American Journal of Clinical Nutrition as "Am. J. Clin. Nutr."). Check that your reference management software (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote) is set to abbreviated journal names, or leave the full title and the Editorial Office will abbreviate it.

MDPI journals, including Sustainability, support supplementary materials that are published alongside the article as downloadable files.

Supported supplementary types:

• Additional figures and tables

• Extended datasets (Excel, CSV)

• Survey instruments and questionnaires

• Code and scripts

• Video and audio files

• Appendices that would interrupt the main text flow

Supplementary materials are cited in the main text as "Figure S1," "Table S1," etc. Each supplementary file needs a descriptive title and brief caption.

One important policy: MDPI supplementary files are available to the referees as part of the peer review process. Don't treat supplementary material as a dumping ground for low-quality content.

The instructions say the total amount of data for all files must not exceed 120 MB, and that large data sets and files greater than 250 MB must be deposited with a specialized service provider or repository, with the repository name, link and accession number, DOI or handle given in the paper.

MDPI also supports a "Data Availability Statement" that must appear at the end of the manuscript, before the references. You need to specify where the data supporting your findings can be accessed, even if the answer is "available from the corresponding author upon request."

These are the details that experienced Sustainability authors know but newcomers miss:

Research articles have defined sections. The instructions list Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions (optional) for research manuscripts, and note that the Discussion may be combined with Results. MDPI's layout guide says the headings are defined for research articles while other article types, such as reviews, allow more flexibility.

Author contributions statement. Required for research articles with several authors, in the back matter. The instructions give this format, using the CRediT taxonomy terms: "Conceptualization, X.X. and Y.Y.; Methodology, X.X.; Software, X.X.; Validation, X.X., Y.Y. and Z.Z." and so on for the remaining roles.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) statements. If your research involved humans or animals, include an "Institutional Review Board Statement" with the approval details. For studies not involving humans or animals, the instructions allow "Not applicable." and also say you may exclude the statement if the study did not require ethical approval.

Informed consent statement. Any research article describing a study involving humans should contain this statement. For studies not involving humans, the instructions allow "Not applicable." or leaving the statement out.

Conflicts of interest declaration. Mandatory. Must appear as its own section titled "Conflicts of Interest" (not "Competing Interests" or "Declaration of Interest"). If there are none, state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest."

Special issue considerations. Sustainability publishes Special Issues led by Guest Editors. If you're submitting to a Special Issue, MDPI states that your paper still follows its standard editorial process.

No running titles. The instructions say not to include abbreviated or short forms of the title, such as a running title or head; the Editorial Office removes them.

Numbering. MDPI's layout guide says section headings are numbered 1., 1.2., 1.2.3. with up to three levels, and the instructions say figures, schemes and tables must be numbered following their order of appearance.

1. Keywords follow the template format. Add three to ten keywords after the abstract, in the format shown in the MDPI template.

1. Abbreviated journal names in references. MDPI's reference guide says cited journals should be abbreviated according to the ISO 4 rules, for example "Am. J. Clin. Nutr." for American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

1. Data Availability Statement is mandatory. Even if your data isn't publicly shared, you need this section.

1. Figure files in a zip archive. Even though figures are inserted in the manuscript, the instructions say files for figures and schemes must be provided during submission in a single zip archive.

For Sustainability-targeted manuscripts, three patterns consistently predict formatting desk-screen failure at Sustainability (MDPI). The patterns below are the same ones the journal's handling editors and outside reviewers flag at first-pass triage.

Scope-fit ambiguity in the abstract. Sustainability editors move fastest on manuscripts whose contribution is obviously aligned with sustainability research with quantified environmental, social, or economic-impact metrics and reproducible methodology. The named failure pattern: manuscripts without explicit sustainability framework framing extend revision rounds. Check whether your abstract reads to Sustainability's scope

Methods package incomplete for the journal's reviewer pool. Sustainability reviewers expect specific methodological detail. Case-study papers without quantified sustainability metrics extend reviewer assignment. Check if your methods package is reviewer-complete

Reference-list and clean-citation failure mode. Editorial team at Sustainability (MDPI) screens reference lists for retracted-paper inclusion. Check whether your reference list is clean against Crossref + Retraction Watch

What we see in pre-submission review work for Sustainability (MDPI). Across the Sustainability-targeted manuscripts we review, the most consistent editorial-culture mismatch is that Sustainability reviewers expect explicit sustainability framework alignment (UN SDGs or similar); manuscripts without explicit sustainability framing extend revision rounds.

For manuscripts targeting Sustainability, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

MDPI template not used. The Sustainability instructions encourage the current MDPI Word or LaTeX template and say it substantially shortens the time to complete copy-editing and publication of accepted manuscripts. Free-format submission is also accepted, with formatting to the journal guidelines requested at the revision stage. Authors should download the current template from the Sustainability instructions page rather than reusing templates from prior MDPI submissions, as MDPI updates its templates periodically.

Abstract exceeds about 200 words or contains citations. The Sustainability instructions set the abstract at about 200 words maximum, in a single paragraph that follows the style of a structured abstract but without headings. MDPI's layout guide says the abstract must not contain images, tables, website links or equations, must define any abbreviations it uses, and cannot refer to the bibliography or to figures. A common error is citing prior work to establish context in the opening sentence of the abstract.

Sustainability framing lacks explicit connection to sustainability dimensions. Sustainability is a broad interdisciplinary journal covering environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Reviewers evaluate whether the manuscript explicitly connects its findings to at least one of these dimensions with appropriate framing. Manuscripts that study a topic tangentially related to sustainability without articulating the sustainability contribution, or that present a generic environmental study without a sustainability context, are deprioritized.

Journal names not abbreviated in the reference list. Sustainability follows the MDPI reference style, in which cited journals are abbreviated according to the ISO 4 rules (if you are unsure how to abbreviate a title, leave the full title and the Editorial Office will abbreviate it). Authors who write out full journal names should check their reference list against that style.

A Sustainability formatting and readiness check evaluates manuscript structure, MDPI template compliance, sustainability framing, and reference format against these desk-rejection patterns before you submit.

Or see example reports before you finalize.