The use and misuse of chemometrics for treating classification problems

In this article, we examine the increasing use by analytical chemists of chemometric methods for treating classification problems. The methods considered are principal component analysis (PCA), canonical variates analysis (CVA), discriminant analysis (DA), and discriminant partial least squares (PLS). Overfitting, a potential hazard of multivariate modelling, is illustrated using examples of real and simulated data, and the importance of model validation is discussed.