Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce a Special Issue on the use of latent variable modeling in epidemiology. I am soliciting manuscripts using all possible latent variable modeling methods, including but not limited to structural equation modeling (SEM), latent growth curve modeling (LGCM/LGM), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), and cross-sectional or longitudinal mixture modeling (e.g., growth mixture modeling, latent class analysis). Suitable manuscripts could include but are not limited to an assessment of trajectories of a public health issue, such as electronic cigarette smoking, testing of the construct validity of an epidemiologic measure of a known construct (e.g., depression, suicidal ideation), comparing ideal measurement level (e.g., ordinal versus binary or count) of substance use behaviors such as cigarette smoking, or testing the validity of common theoretical models (e.g., health beliefs model) to public health issues such as type II diabetes, using structural equation modeling. Manuscripts applying latent variable modeling to the COVID-19 epidemic are especially welcome. In addition, manuscripts introducing specific latent variable modeling methods to epidemiology practitioners are especially welcome, including those discussing controversies in SEM such as the assessment of model fit, inappropriate use of chi-square to assess model fit, and post hoc model adjustment to improve model fit to the data.

I am looking forward to receiving your submissions. I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe.

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Daniel Rodriguez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Stats is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• latent variable modeling
• structural equation modeling (SEM)
• confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
• latent class analysis (LCA)
• latent growth curve modeling (LGCM)
• growth mixture modeling (GMM)
• exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM)
• epidemiology
• public health