tThe responsibility borne by governmental departments measured by a set of indicators is a key factoraffecting the performance of urban sustainability. Thus, responsibility analysis can guide the selection ofsustainability indicators. In line with the principle of Management by Objective (MBO), this paper aimsto introduce a responsibility-based method, named Strategic goal-Responsibility department-Response(SRR), for selecting sustainable urbanization indicators. By applying this method, indicators are selectedfrom the perspective of concerned departments’ responsibility. In developing the SRR model, the tool ofResponsibility Assignment Matrix is used to identify the concerned departments who assume responsi-bilities in the process of implementing sustainable urbanization. The content analysis is used to analyzethe work scope and definitions of the concerned departments and sustainable urbanization indicatorsthat can measure the responsibility performance of the concerned departments are filtered out. A casestudy of Jinan city in China is used to demonstrate the procedures of using the proposed method. Basedon the strategic goals of Jinan city, 20 responsibility departments and 152 initial indicators are identifiedby using the SRR framework. The case study reveals that the method is a feasible and effective tool inassisting policy makers to select sustainable urbanization indicators.