Academic Journal
Q1Drones
About Drones
Drones is a scholarly journal published by Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). SCImago 2025 lists it in Q1, with an SJR of 1.049 and H-index of 75.
Coverage: 2017-2026. Research categories: Aerospace Engineering (Q1); Artificial Intelligence (Q1); Computer Science Applications (Q1); Control and Systems Engineering (Q1); Information Systems (Q1).
Verified field sources
- Journal Impact Factor: 5.2 — Official source; checked 2026-10-03. Journal Impact Factor and reporting year from the publisher imprint.
- Impact Factor year: 2025 — Official source; checked 2026-10-03. Journal Impact Factor and reporting year from the publisher imprint.
- Editor(s): Prof. Dr. Diego González-Aguilera (Editor-in-Chief) — Official source; checked 2026-10-03. Editor-in-Chief listed on the journal homepage.
- Contact email: drones@mdpi.com — Official source; checked 2026-10-03. Journal editorial office email published by MDPI; manuscript files use the submission system.
Open-access policies and author information
Reported in the official DOAJ public CSV snapshot (2026-09-01), downloaded 2026-10-03. Record updated 2024-04-10. This snapshot does not establish today’s listing status or fee quotation.
Publisher policy links recorded by DOAJ
- Aims and scope ↗
- Editorial board ↗
- Instructions for authors ↗
- Peer-review policy ↗
- Publication fees ↗
- Fee waivers ↗
- Licence terms ↗
- Copyright policy ↗
- Preservation policy ↗
Source: DOAJ journal record. Journal metadata is distributed by DOAJ under CC0. Confirm current fees, tax, eligibility and waiver terms with the publisher.
Source-backed journal facts
Topics in published research
UAV Applications and Optimization; Robotic Path Planning Algorithms; Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization; Distributed Control Multi-Agent Systems; Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications; Advanced Neural Network Applications.
OpenAlex classifies topics from published works. These topics are not the publisher’s official aims and scope.
Source: OpenAlex source record. Retrieved 2026-10-03. Source record updated 2026-10-02. OpenAlex metrics are different from SCImago metrics and the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor.
Journal Metrics
Quartile, SJR and the listed SCImago H-index use the 2025 imported SCImago dataset. A quartile may vary by subject category. Values without a source or reporting year are unverified historical entries. Verify the current Journal Impact Factor with Clarivate or the publisher before using it.
Aims & Scope
The publisher’s official aims and scope have not yet been verified for this profile. Use the journal website to check subject fit and accepted article types before submitting.
Recent Research Articles
Latest publications matched automatically by ISSN.
IHRSO: An Improved Hybrid Rime–Snow Ablation Optimizer for Multi-UAV Cooperative Path Planning Under Low-Altitude Wind Conditions
Shiyang Li, Ming Wei, Zehao Hou, Haoran Guo et al.
2026-10-02 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100742Offloading Association, Routing, and 3D Deployment Optimization for PAoI Minimization in Drone-Assisted Smart Last-Mile Logistics Networks
Yuting Hao, Jonathan Kua
2026-10-02 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100741A Communication-Aware Path Planning Algorithm for Power Inspection UAVs Using an Improved Grey Wolf Optimizer
Shenyu Wang, Xingyuan Wang, Yongdong Dai, He Wang et al.
2026-10-01 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100740Hybrid Unmanned Underwater Vehicles: A Review of Architectures, Enabling Technologies, and Engineering Trade-Offs
Christos Alexandris, Dimitrios Piromalis, Panagiotis Papageorgas
2026-10-01 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100739Integrity-Aware Hierarchical Navigation for UAVs Under GNSS Spoofing and Multi-Sensor Degradation
Mohammad Alja’afreh, Ali Karime, Ranwa Al Mallah
2026-10-01 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100738Review of Applications, Technologies and Future Trends of Maritime UAV Systems for Smart Ocean Operations
Mina Tadros, Amir Bordbar, Amin Nazemian, Myo Zin Aung et al.
2026-09-30 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100737Measurement-Interval Dynamically Iterated Kalman Filtering for Tightly Coupled INS/USBL Navigation of AUVs Under Large Initial Errors
Liang Zhang, Ziran Dai, Tao Zhang, Zejia Wang et al.
2026-09-30 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100736Distributed Time-Coordinated Guidance for Safe Fireline Deployment of UAV Swarms
Hailong Yan, Yongzhao Yan, Zhe Yu
2026-09-29 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100735Risk-Aware Switch-Time Recovery Planning (ReSwitch) for High-Speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Pursuit–Evasion
Guangyu Pan, Bo Hou, Yao Chen
2026-09-28 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100733A Graph-Based Workflow for the Design and Prototyping of Protective Cages for UAVs
Stéphane Gobron, Ivan Serra Moncadas, Thierry Flück, Julien Voëffray et al.
2026-09-28 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100734Wind-Corrected Payload Assessment of a Hovering Drone via Micro-Doppler Branch Separation
Dmytro Vovchuk, Oleg Torgovitsky, Mykola Khobzei, Vladyslav Tkach et al.
2026-09-25 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100729Hierarchical Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Cooperative Wildfire Suppression with Amphibious Firefighting UAVs
Jianfeng Xie, Yilin Han, Qiming Yang, Jiandong Zhang et al.
2026-09-25 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100730Meta-Learning Augmented Model Predictive Control for Quadrotor UAV Flight in Strong Wind
Bin Wang, Chuixu Kong, Mutian Yu, Chang Liu et al.
2026-09-25 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100731A Controlled Comparison of GRU and LSTM Encoder–Decoder Networks for Medium-Horizon UAV Velocity-Waypoint Prediction
Shokoufeh Mirzaei, Sam Ly, Siddharth Raj, Shraya Ramamoorthy et al.
2026-09-25 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100732Failure-Aware Cognitive Spectrum Handoff for UAV Command-and-Control Links: Calibrated Sensing, Transactional Recovery, and Multi-Band Evaluation
Mohammad Alja’afreh, Adel Ismail, Omar Hourani, Ali Karime et al.
2026-09-23 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100728PA-YOLO: Partial-Channel Grouped Attention and Multi-Scale Prediction for Object Detection in UAV Imagery
Kang Tan, Hu Yao, Zhiyuan Liu, Xingjie Zhang et al.
2026-09-23 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100725Comparative Evaluation of UAV Multispectral Sensors for Precision Agriculture: Spectral and Structural Consistency in Maize Canopies
László Radócz, Nxumalo Gift Siphiwe, Nikolett Éva Kiss, Andrea Szabó et al.
2026-09-23 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100723Measurement-Driven Path-Loss Modeling for Low-Altitude UAV Air-to-Ground Links Using Physics-Aware Ensemble Learning and Calibrated Uncertainty
Fuyuan Ma, Wenrui Ding, Shutong Wang, Xiaorong Zhang et al.
2026-09-23 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100727UAV RGB-NIR Tracking via Quality-Gated Dynamic Template Update in OSTrack
Yijun Jin, Guodong Jin, Ye Yu, Zhong Liu et al.
2026-09-23 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100726Urban Air Mobility Solutions: UAVs for Smarter Cities
Sarah Hubbard, Damon Lercel, Cheng Wang
2026-09-23 · DOI: 10.3390/drones10100724Reviews
Community Reviews
Version History
October 2, 2026 at 8:24 pm
October 2, 2026