---
title: "Vehicle routing research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “vehicle routing” appeared in 1,297 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (1,140), AI (132) and economics (9)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/vehicle-routing
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/vehicle-routing.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “vehicle routing” appeared in 1,297 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (1,140), AI (132) and economics (9). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “vehicle routing”

Research on “vehicle routing” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “vehicle routing” appeared in 1,297 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (1,140), AI (132) and economics (9).
- 142 of them were published in 2025, against 107 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les réseaux d'entreprise, la logistique et le transport (24), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (18) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University (18).
- The journals publishing most of them were European Journal of Operational Research (80), Computers & Operations Research (79) and Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review (72).
- The most-cited of them is “On the min-cost Traveling Salesman Problem with Drone” (Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies, 2017), with 627 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 106 | 99 | 95 | 114 | 109 | 119 | 113 | 142 | 117 | 126 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 1 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 22 | 20 | 21 | 12 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| All categories | 107 | 109 | 108 | 127 | 124 | 137 | 138 | 166 | 142 | 139 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [European Journal of Operational Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/european-journal-of-operational-research.md) | 80 |
| 2 | [Computers & Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-operations-research.md) | 79 |
| 3 | [Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-e-logistics-and-transportation-review.md) | 72 |
| 4 | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 50 |
| 5 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 43 |
| 6 | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 41 |
| 7 | [Annals of Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/annals-of-operations-research.md) | 31 |
| 8 | [Transportation Research Part B Methodological](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-b-methodological.md) | 13 |
| 9 | [Socio-Economic Planning Sciences](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/socio-economic-planning-sciences.md) | 12 |
| 10 | [OR Spectrum](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/or-spectrum.md) | 12 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les réseaux d'entreprise, la logistique et le transport | 24 |
| 2 | [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/centre-national-de-la-recherche-scientifique.md) | 18 |
| 3 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 18 |
| 4 | [Beihang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beihang-university.md) | 13 |
| 5 | [Delft University of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/delft-university-of-technology.md) | 13 |
| 6 | [Eindhoven University of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/eindhoven-university-of-technology.md) | 13 |
| 7 | [Université Laval](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/universite-laval.md) | 13 |
| 8 | [HEC Montréal](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hec-montreal.md) | 11 |
| 9 | [Southwest Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwest-jiaotong-university.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Tsinghua University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tsinghua-university.md) | 11 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 187 |
| 2 | United States | 63 |
| 3 | Canada | 50 |
| 4 | France | 48 |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 48 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 42 |
| 7 | Italy | 41 |
| 8 | Germany | 34 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 30 |
| 10 | Iran | 28 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | time windows | 80 |
| 2 | [mixed-integer linear programming](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/mixed-integer-linear-programming.md) | 78 |
| 3 | [last-mile delivery](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/last-mile-delivery.md) | 69 |
| 4 | adaptive large neighborhood search | 51 |
| 5 | [combinatorial optimization](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/combinatorial-optimization.md) | 35 |
| 6 | [metaheuristic optimization](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/metaheuristic-optimization.md) | 34 |
| 7 | [mixed integer programming](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/mixed-integer-programming.md) | 33 |
| 8 | [multi-objective optimization](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/multi-objective-optimization.md) | 28 |
| 9 | traveling salesman problem | 28 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 627 | 5.9 | [On the min-cost Traveling Salesman Problem with Drone](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2017.11.015) | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 2017-12-22 | Quang Minh Ha, Yves Deville, Quang Dung Pham et al. |
| 2 | 505 | 4.8 | [A survey of dial-a-ride problems: Literature review and recent developments](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2018.02.001) | [Transportation Research Part B Methodological](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-b-methodological.md) | 2018-02-14 | Sin C. Ho, Wai Yuen Szeto, Yong‐Hong Kuo et al. |
| 3 | 391 | 6.3 | [The electric vehicle routing problem and its variations: A literature review](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2021.107650) | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 2021-08-30 | İlker Küçükoğlu, Reginald Dewil, Dirk Cattrysse |
| 4 | 346 | 2.9 | [The electric location routing problem with time windows and partial recharging](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.01.011) | [European Journal of Operational Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/european-journal-of-operational-research.md) | 2017-01-10 | Maximilian Schiffer, Grit Walther |
| 5 | 345 | 3.7 | [Truck-drone hybrid delivery routing: Payload-energy dependency and No-Fly zones](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.01.010) | [International Journal of Production Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-production-economics.md) | 2019-01-09 | Ho Young Jeong, Byung Duk Song, Seokcheon Lee |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “vehicle routing”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/vehicle-routing

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-vehicle-routing,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “vehicle routing”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/vehicle-routing}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).