Title: common factor analysis
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - common factor analysis
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.10089
Status: current

Definition
Factor analysis in which latent variables are calculated that maximise the correlation with observed variables.

Note
The common factors are not unique. Typically factors are rotated so that the factors are more easily interpreted in terms of the original variables.

Related Terms
- Factor analysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10093
- latent variables: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10095

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 407. 'Vocabulary of concepts and terms in chemometrics (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 418 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0605)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10089/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10089/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10089/xml

Citation: Citation: 'common factor analysis' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.10089
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-04-18T19:04:51+00:00