Viewpoint: A correction to the entropy weight coefficient method by Shen et al. for accessing urban sustainability [Cities 42 (2015) 186–194]

Abstract The assessment of urban sustainability is an essential step in planning, constructing, and maintaining sustainable cities, and thus it has become a research hotspot. In this context, Shen et al. (2015) accessed the sustainability of Jinan city (China) based on two indices calculated using an entropy weight coefficient method, and this journal published the results. However, we demonstrate that the calculated indices (and thus the assessment results) can never be obtained according to their “entropy weight coefficient method,” by analyzing the mathematics behind the method and developing an approach to validating the results of the method. We find that this fact was caused by their mistakes in reporting the entropy weight coefficient method and, therefore, provide a necessary correction to these mistakes. We hope this correction is not too late, although the work has been cited 56 times (up to 5 May 2020).