Raman spectroscopy with self-organizing feature maps and partial least squares discriminant analysis for discrimination and source correspondence of red gel ink pens

•Novel study reporting on discrimination and source correspondence of red gel ink using Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM) and Partial Least Square in tandem with non-destructive techniques of Raman Spectroscopy.•Unsupervised Self-Organising Feature Maps (SOFM) was initially used for data exploration.•Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis was used as classification model.•Correct prediction rate (100%) for all unknown samples according to specific type of colorants using the trained PLS-DA model.