Paper is a networked structure of randomly bonded fibers. These fibers are composed of naturally occurring polymeric materials (cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin). Polymeric materials such as these exhibit viscoelastic deformation, and as a result, creep under an applied stress. A rheological model has been developed to predict the tensile creep behavior of paper under a uniaxial stress. Specifically, the focus of this model was to predict creep strain using only stress, time, and efficiency factor (effectiveness of bonding). This rheological model offers insight into creep behavior (drawing from molecular creep mechanisms) and separates total strain from creep into initial elastic, primary creep, and secondary creep components. Interfiber bonding is taken into account through the use of an efficiency factor which represents how effectively bonding is distributing load throughout the fiber network of the paper. As a result, this model makes it possible to predict the creep behavior of paper over a range of bonding levels, induced by mechanical changes in bonded area or chemical modification of specific bond strength, using creep data from paper at any single level of bonding. This utility is retained as long as the fibers and the orientation of the fibers are not changed. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.