[R] SEM/path question

[spencerg]

Dear Erin: 


      I do not have a direct answer to your question, but the following 
quickly identified for me just now 244 help pages in contributed 
packages that mentioned either "path analysis" or "SEM", sorted to put 
first the package with the most such hits: 


pa <- RSiteSearch.function('path analysis')
hits(pa) # 193
sem. <- RSiteSearch.function('SEM')
hits(sem.) # 53
pa.sem <- pa|sem.
nrow(pa.sem) # 244;  only 2 mentioned both terms
HTML(pa&sem.)
# Open a web browser with links to the 2 in common
HTML(pa.sem)
# Open a web browser with a table linking to all 244,
# with the package with the most such pages first


      I also tried Wikipedia for "path analysis" and "sem".  The latter 
includes and "external link" to "sem package for R", which includes, "An 
Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling (November 2008, Programa de 
Computação Científica - FIOCRUZ Rio de Janeiro - Brasil)", which 
includes further "Resources" and "Readings".  I have not used this 
myself, but John Fox, the author and maintainer of "sem" has substantial 
experience doing this in R.  "Old sources" in the CRAN page for "sem" 
lists 27 different releases starting with 0.4-1 in 01-May-2001. 


      If I wanted to know more about "path analysis" and "sem", I'd 
start with this material by John Fox. 


      Hope this helps. 
      Spencer Graves

Erin Hodgess wrote:
> Dear R People:
>
> Could someone recommend a "baby book" on path analysis and SEM, please?
>
> Or if someone has an example that they use in the classroom setting,
> that would be very cool too.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sincerely,
> Erin
>
>
>