Structural Equation Modeling Working Group
2026 Meeting at IBE & IFiS PAN in Warsaw, Poland
The next meeting of the SEM Working Group will take place 15-17 April 2026 at the Educational Research Institute (IBE) and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN) in Warsaw, Poland.
Call for Papers now open!
The next meeting of the SEM Working Group will take place from 15 to 17 April 2026 at the Educational Research Institute (IBE) and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN) in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting is organized by Prof. Artur Pokropek and the local organizing team from both IBE and IFiS PAN.
Keynote addresses will be given by Prof. Yves Rosseel (University of Ghent) and Prof. Jörg Henseler (University of Twente and Universidade Nova de Lisboa).
Prof. Yves Rosseel (University of Ghent), author of the lavaan package for SEM in R, will be giving a pre-conference workshop on 15 April 2026. Both speakers and passive participants are invited to take part in the workshop.
We invite all participants to propose and present oral papers. Each delegate can present only one oral paper, but they can be co-authors on multiple submissions. The presentations are scheduled for 16-17 April 2026.
To submit your abstract, please fill in the following form.
The deadline for submissions expires on December 1. The decision on the acceptance of your abstracts will be communicated on December 8.
There is no conference fee. Participation is free for active and passive participants.
The applications can include, but by no means are not limited to, the following topics and areas:
- SEM and Causality,
- Missing Data and Multiple Imputation,
- Longitudinal Measurement and Continuous Time Modeling,
- Modelling Longitudinal Data with IRT-Models or Bayesian Structural Equation Models,
- State-Trait Modeling,
- Moderation Effects in Latent Variables,
- Integration of Machine Learning Techniques with Latent Variable Modeling,
- Multilevel SEM,
- SEM and Mixture Models,
- SEM in Modelling Response Processes (response styles, careless responding, rapid guessing, etc.),
- Advances in SEM Software,
- Open Science and SEM (reproducibility, transparent reporting, etc.),
- Visualizations and Communication of SEM Results,
- Teaching SEM, etc.
Organizing Committee:
- Prof. Artur Pokropek (IFiS/IBE)
- Marta Babecka (IBE)dr Maria Flakus (IFiS)
- dr Marek Muszyński (IFiS)
- dr Tomasz Żółtak (IFiS)
Scientific Committee:
- Prof. Peter Schmidt (Justus Liebig University Giessen)
- Prof. Artur Pokropek (IBE/IFiS)
- Prof. Jochen Mayerl (Chemnitz University of Technology)
- dr Henrik Andersen (Chemnitz University of Technology)
- dr Tomasz Żółtak (IFiS)
Important announcement
With the retirement of Jost Reinecke, the responsibility of the SEM Working Group has passed to Jochen Mayerl and Henrik Andersen of the University of Technology Chemnitz. Due to privacy concerns, we cannot pass Working Group members’ contact information to the TU Chemnitz without your permission. To continue to be a member of the Working Group and receive the newsletter, please use this form (enter your e-mail address and name and click on "Subscribe" at the bottom under "subscribe without creating an account").
History of the SEM Working Group
The Working Group “Structural Equation Modeling” was founded in 1986 and had its first meeting at ZUMA (now GESIS) in Mannheim. Meetings are held in yearly, either in March, April or May. Members of the group come from various disciplines, for example Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Economy. The Working Group has an informal character. It has no affiliation to any research organization.
The main goal of the group is the exchange and presentation of methodological problems in structural equation modeling and related fields. The meetings are discoursive in nature; they foster a collaborative environment where researchers are encouraged to present unsolved problems and works in progress. It serves as a forum for sharing emerging ideas and challenges, with an emphasis on constructive feedback and mutual learning.
The original letter from Peter Schmidt addressed to Jost Reinecke about the formation of an informal working group for advancing and discussing structural equation modeling (German) along with some photos of the first meetings can be found below.
Members
There are currently around 150 members on the list. It is easy to become a member: use this form (enter your e-mail address and name at the bottom under "subscribe without an account").
