10100 IUPAC Gold Book - multivariate curve resolution 10.1351/goldbook.10100 10100 current 1 Factor analysis for the decomposition of multicomponent data into a linear sum of chemically-meaningful components when little or no prior information about the composition is available. MCR factors are extracted by the iterative minimization of the residual matrix using an alternating least squares approach, while applying suitable constraints, such as non-negativity, to the loadings and scores. MCR can be performed on the data matrix with or without data pre-processing. MCR factors are not unique but are dependent on initial estimates, the number of factors to be resolved, constraints applied and convergence criteria. MCR factors are not required to be orthogonal. Factor analysis https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10093 alternating least squares https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10083 data pre-processing https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10048 PAC, 2016, 88, 407. 'Vocabulary of concepts and terms in chemometrics (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 421 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0605) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10100/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10100/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10100/plain Citation: 'multivariate curve resolution' 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.10100 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. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . 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. 2026-04-18T15:52:02+00:00