SEMA3

SEMA (Smartphone Ecological Momentary Assessment) is a suite of software for intensive longitudinal survey research using iOS and Android smartphones. Primarily designed for Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), also known as the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), SEMA3 has the flexibility to deliver smartphone surveys at fixed or random intervals ranging from minutes to months, as well as allowing participant-triggered surveys (a.k.a. event-contingent sampling). SEMA3 offers researchers a variety of advanced survey design and scheduling features, and the free iOS and Android smartphone applications are designed to give participants an outstanding user-experience.

SEMA was originally developed in 2013. and substantially updated (SEMA2) in 2015 by researchers at Australian Catholic University and Orygen-The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, in collaboration with Boosted Human.

Since 2015, SEMA2 has been used by researchers around the world (Australia, USA, Canada) to study a range of processes in daily life, including emotional functioning in healthy and clinical populations, social interactions and personality, and cognitive performance.

In 2019, we released SEMA3 with significant upgrades to functionality, building on extensive experience gained over several years conducting research with the previous versions of the platform. SEMA3 offers advanced survey features, greater flexibility in survey and schedule design, and an intuitive user-interface for researchers and participants. SEMA3 is funded by the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences with software development and hosting by the Melbourne eResearch Group.

Referencing SEMA3

To cite SEMA3, please use the following reference:

O’Brien, S. T., Dozo, N., Hinton, J. D. X., Moeck, E. K., Susanto, R., Jayaputera, G. T., Sinnott, R. O., Vu, D., Alvarez-Jimenez, M., Gleeson, J., & Koval, P. (2024). SEMA3: A free smartphone platform for daily life surveys. Behavior Research Methods, 56(7), 7691–7706. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02445-w

Research Team

A/Prof Pete Koval, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences (SEMA3 Director)


Pete Koval is an Associate Professor in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, where he co-directs the Functions of Emotion in Everyday Life (FEEL) Lab . His research lies at the intersection of social, personality, and clinical psychology with a focus on the dynamics of affective processes in daily life and how these processes relate to well-being and psychological functioning.

Sarah O’Brien, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences (SEMA3 Coordinator)


Sarah O’Brien is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on interpersonal emotion regulation in everyday life using ecological momentary assessment.

Prof Richard Sinnott, Melbourne eResearch Group (MeG Director)


Professor Richard O. Sinnott is the Director of eResearch at the University of Melbourne and Professor of Applied Computing Systems. In these roles he is responsible for all aspects of eResearch (research-oriented IT development) at the University. He has been lead software engineer/architect on an extensive portfolio of national and international projects, with specific focus on those research domains requiring finer-grained access control (security).

Dr Glenn Jayaputera, Melbourne eResearch Group (MeG Deputy Director)


Dr. Glenn Jayaputera is the deputy director of Melbourne eResearch Group and platform manager for the PRESS project. He has over twenty-five years of experience in the software domain including project management, software development, business analysis, systems architecture, design and implementation, as well as operations support and maintenance. Glenn’s research interests are in the area of distributed artificial intelligence and software agent systems.

Rio Susanto, Melbourne eResearch Group (SEMA3 Lead Developer)


Rio is a software engineer in the Melbourne eResearch Group at the University of Melbourne.

Open Source

SEMA3 was designed to be open source software and will soon be available on GitHub.