MDPI Reference Styles: ACS, APA and Chicago

If you’re preparing a manuscript for an MDPI journal, getting your references into the correct format can be surprisingly time-consuming. MDPI uses three reference styles:

• MDPI: ACS
• MDPI: APA
• MDPI: Chicago.

The style you need depends on the journal you are submitting to, so always check the journal’s instructions for authors before formatting your references.

Each style has its own rules for author names, punctuation, capitalization, dates, journal titles, citations and the ordering of information. If you already have a reference list in another style, applying the correct MDPI format manually can mean editing hundreds of individual references.

Thrix can automatically format your references in all three MDPI styles.

What are the MDPI reference styles?

MDPI uses three reference styles:

• MDPI: ACS – based on the American Chemical Society style
• MDPI: APA – based on the American Psychological Association style
• MDPI: Chicago – based on the Chicago style

How do MDPI reference styles differ?

Although they are all used by MDPI, they look very different. For example, the same journal article might appear as follows:

MDPI: ACS

1. Xu, Y.; Liu, T.; Li, Y.; Liu, Y.; Ge, F. Nanostructure Design and Catalytic Performance of Mo/ZnAl-LDH in Cationic Orchid X-BL Removal. Materials 2018, 11, 2390. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11122390.

MDPI: APA

Xu, Y., Liu, T., Li, Y., Liu, Y., & Ge, F. (2018). Nanostructure design and catalytic performance of Mo/ZnAl-LDH in cationic orchid X-BL removal. Materials, 11(12), Article 2390. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11122390

MDPI: Chicago

Xu, Yin, Tingjiao Liu, Yang Li, Yun Liu, and Fei Ge. 2018. Nanostructure design and catalytic performance of Mo/ZnAl-LDH in cationic orchid X-BL removal. Materials, 11, 2390; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11122390.

The differences are not simply cosmetic. Each style uses a different system for presenting authors, publication dates, journal information and other bibliographic details.

MDPI: ACS

MDPI: ACS is based on the reference style of the American Chemical Society. This style uses the numerical citation system, with non-superscript numerical citations in square brackets: [1], numbered by citation order.

Key features of MDPI: ACS references

• Author given names are presented as initials.
• Author names are presented with the surname first.
• Author names are separated by semicolons.
• The article title uses title case.
• Journal titles are abbreviated, using ISO 4 rules.
• The publication year appears in bold after the journal title.
• DOIs are included where available, presented as URLs.

Some parts of editing can be extremely time-consuming, such as making sure the journal abbreviation follows ISO 4 guidelines, or looking up and adding a DOI. Thrix automates all of this in a single step.

MDPI: APA

MDPI: APA is based on the reference style of the American Psychological Association. It uses the author–date system, with references arranged alphabetically by author.

Key features of MDPI: APA references

• Author given names are presented as initials.
• Author names are presented with the surname first.
• Author names are separated by commas, with an ampersand before the final author.
• Article titles use sentence case.
• Journal titles are written in full.
• The publication year appears in parentheses after the author names.
• DOIs are included where available, presented as URLs.

Some parts of editing can be extremely time-consuming, such as expanding journal abbreviations to their full titles, or looking up and adding a DOI. Using Thrix makes this process quick and easy.

MDPI: Chicago

MDPI: Chicago is based on the Chicago style. It uses the author–date system, like APA, but the style differs substantially.

Key features of MDPI: Chicago

• Author given names are presented as the first given name in full, followed by middle initials.
• The first author name is presented as surname first; subsequent names are given with the given name first.
• Author names are separated by commas, with the word ‘and’ before the final author.
• Article titles use sentence case, and are enclosed in quotation marks.
• Journal titles are written in full.
• The publication year appears after the author names.
• DOIs are included where available, presented as URLs.

Some parts of editing can be extremely time-consuming, such as looking up and adding full author first names, and DOIs. Using Thrix makes this process quick and easy (although full names are not always stored in online databases, so Thrix will flag when they are missing).

Which MDPI style should I use?

MDPI journals use different reference styles, so there isn’t one MDPI style that applies to every journal. Check the instructions for authors for the journal you are submitting to to find out whether it requires MDPI: ACS, or MDPI: APA or MDPI: Chicago.

If you are preparing a book or other MDPI publication, check the relevant MDPI requirements as well. MDPI Books accepts manuscripts using ACS, APA or Chicago style and requires the same style to be used consistently throughout a book.

Once you know which style is required, use Thrix to apply that style consistently throughout your reference list.

Common problems with MDPI references

Formatting a large reference list manually can introduce many small inconsistencies. Common problems include:

• Using the wrong MDPI style for the journal.
• Mixing APA, ACS and Chicago formatting.
• Incorrect punctuation between authors.
• Using full author names when initials are required, or vice versa.
• Incorrect capitalization of article titles.
• Using full journal titles when abbreviations are required, or vice versa.
• Incorrect volume and issue formatting.
• Missing page ranges or article numbers.
• Missing DOIs.
• Incorrect DOI formatting.
• References that are not in the required order.
• Inconsistent formatting between different types of references.

These problems become particularly difficult to spot when a manuscript contains dozens or hundreds of references.

How to format MDPI references with Thrix

Thrix can automatically format an existing reference list in MDPI: ACS, MDPI: APA, or MDPI: Chicago.

Rather than requiring you to rebuild your bibliography from scratch, Thrix takes the references you already have and applies the selected style. This includes:

• Applying the correct punctuation and capitalization.
• Formatting author names correctly, expanding or abbreviating given names as needed.
• Expanding or abbreviating journal titles in the correct way.
• Correcting the ordering of bibliographic information.
• Adding DOIs and other missing information where it can be verified.
• Cross-checking the in-text citations with the reference list, and sorting them appropriately.
• Checking and correcting references against trusted sources such as Crossref and PubMed.

If Thrix cannot verify something, it does not simply invent an answer the way that tools like ChatGPT can. Instead, it will flag the reference for you to review.

How to format your references

1. Go to www.thrix.ai and paste in your references, or, if you want to standardize your in-text citations too, upload your full Microsoft Word document.
2. Select your style: MDPI: ACS, MDPI: APA, or MDPI: Chicago.
3. Tap Thrix it.

Thrix will then process your references and apply the selected MDPI style. Where Thrix is unsure about something it will add a comment, and where it’s more confident, it will make a tracked change. You should review all changes and comments before submitting your document.