An Open-source WYSIWYG Web Application for Drawing Path Diagrams of Structural Equation Models - Journal Article

Oct 25, 2026

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is widely applied in behavioral, social, and education research, but producing publication-ready SEM path diagrams is difficult with existing tools. This article presents semdiag, an open-source, web-based graphical application for interactively creating WYSIWYG SEM path diagrams in major browsers, available online or offline. The paper outlines motivation, tool features, interactive workflow, saving/loading diagrams locally, and provides examples demonstrating practical use.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Motivation and Significance

SEM and its applications

Software for SEM and path diagrams

Purpose and Tool Features

semdiag as a web-based WYSIWYG editor

Saving, loading, and export formats

Contact and Acknowledgements

Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: [https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hsem20](https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hsem20) An Open-source WYSIWYG Web Application for Drawing Path Diagrams of Structural Equation Models Yujiao Mai, Ziqian Xu, Zhiyong Zhang & Ke-Hai Yuan To cite this article: Yujiao Mai, Ziqian Xu, Zhiyong Zhang & Ke-Hai Yuan (2023) An Opensource WYSIWYG Web Application for Drawing Path Diagrams of Structural Equation Models, Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 30:2, 328-335, DOI: 10. 1080/10705511 .2022.2101460 To link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.1080/1070551](https://doi.org/10.1080/1070551) 1.2022.2101460 Published online: 18 Aug 2022. | Submit your article to this journal | | --- | | Article views: 235 | | View related articles | | View Crossmark data | Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hsem20](https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hsem20) STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL 2023, VOL. 30, NO. 2, 328–335 [https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2022.2101460](https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2022.2101460) An Open-source WYSIWYG Web Application for Drawing Path Diagrams of Structural Equation Models Yujiao Mai, Ziqian Xu, Zhiyong Zhang, and Ke-Hai Yuan University of Notre Dame ABSTRACT Structural equation modeling (SEM) is widely used in behavioral, social, and education research. Drawing publication-ready path diagrams for SEM is not a pleasant task with the existing software. The article introduces an open-source web-based graphical application, semdiag, for drawing WYSIWYG SEM path diagrams interactively. The application is an on-going project developed by the authors using JavaScript, and it can be used in major web browsers, both online and offline. Several examples are provided to demonstrate how to use the application. KEYWORDS JavaScript; structural equation modeling; path diagram; graphical interface 1. Motivation and Significance Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a statistical technique that can be used to evaluate relations among observed and latent variables (Hoyle, 1995), where an observed variable can be measured directly but a latent variable has to be assessed indirectly using observed variables. The relations between two variables can be non-directional as correlation relationships or directional as predictive relationships (Hoyle, 1995; Kline, 2011) . SEM generalizes many commonly used statistical models such as confirmatory factor models, path models, latent regression models, and growth curve models (Kline, 2011) . Over the past few decades, the application of SEM has been rapidly growing in many disciplines (Kline, 2011; Nachtigall et al., 2003; Westland, 2015), especially in education (Khine, 2013), psychology (MacCallum & Austin, 2000), management (Shook et al., 2004), and marketing (Babin et al., 2008) . A variety of software packages were developed to conduct SEM analysis including commercial ones such as LISREL (Jo€reskog & So€rbom, 2022), EQS (Bentler, 2020, 2006), AMOS (Arbuckle, 2021), and Mplus (Muthn & Muthn, 2017, 2021), as well as free ones such as Xnyx (von Oertzenet al., 2015a, 2015b), R packages Lavaan (Rosseel, 2012; Rosseel et al., 2022), OpenMx (Boker et al., 2022), and sem (Fox et al., 2022) . Some general-purpose statistical software products such as SAS and STATA also provide routines to perform SEM analysis. SEM almost always relies on representing models graphically as path diagrams for illustrating the theoretical models intuitively. For example, the software programs EQS (Bentler, 2020) and LISREL (Jo€reskog & So€rbom, 2022) have options to graphically display path diagrams directly. Some programs such as the R package sem (Fox et al., 2022) can create syntax for external drawing software su

FAQs

What problem does semdiag address in SEM research?

It addresses the difficulty of drawing publication-ready SEM path diagrams using existing software by providing an interactive WYSIWYG web application.

How does semdiag support interactive creation of SEM path diagrams?

It enables users to create new path diagrams and modify existing ones through a graphical interface, with WYSIWYG behavior in major web browsers.

What formats can semdiag export diagrams to?

Diagrams can be saved into SVG, PNG, PDF, and HTML formats for ready use in other contexts.

Oct 25, 2026

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