Supports Open Access
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Journal is committed to the broad and equitable dissemination of knowledge. We recognize that SEM research has applications across disciplines, including decision sciences, economics, sociology, political science, mathematics, and modeling, and that unrestricted access to scholarship enhances both academic advancement and practical impact. Our open access policy ensures that research published in the journal is available to a wide audience while respecting the rights of authors and meeting international publishing standards.
SEM enables authors to make their work freely accessible to the global research community. Published articles are permanently available on our online platform without subscription barriers, ensuring that students, researchers, and practitioners, regardless of institutional resources, can engage with the latest developments in SEM. This approach reflects our belief that knowledge should circulate widely, fostering collaboration across disciplines and geographies.
Authors retain significant rights over their published work. They may share their articles through institutional repositories, course materials, or professional websites, provided that the original publication in the SEM is acknowledged. They may also reuse figures, tables, and excerpts for teaching, conference presentations, or future scholarly work without seeking further permission. These rights ensure that authors remain active stewards of their intellectual contributions, while readers benefit from clear guidance on how the work may be used.
SEM supports compliance with funder and institutional requirements for open access publishing. We work closely with authors to ensure that articles meet the specific mandates of research councils, funding agencies, and universities worldwide. All articles are assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through Zenodo and are indexed widely to maximize visibility and discoverability.
Open access is also a matter of ethical responsibility. Authors are expected to provide accurate information about funding sources, licensing preferences, and prior dissemination. Where possible, data, model syntax, and replication materials should accompany published articles in established repositories to promote transparency and reproducibility. Misrepresentation of open access terms, or the misuse of published content, is treated as a violation of publication ethics.
By adopting a comprehensive open access policy, SEM reinforces its mission to promote methodological innovation and substantive research across the sciences and social sciences. Removing barriers to knowledge is essential not only for advancing SEM as a field but also for enabling its applications to real-world challenges in decision-making, economics, social analysis, and beyond.
For special issues, the associate editor oversees the production process, while guest editors recommend potential reviewers for each submission. The timeline for the review process, including first submission, review, revision, second review, and final submission, is flexible and can be negotiated between the journal editor(s) and guest editors. Generally, reviewers have three months to submit their reviews. In the case of special issues, this timeframe may be extended to ensure comprehensive evaluation by a single reviewer for the entire issue.