@article{c2f60df0572e4553a850383313f6eb0b,
title = "Quality control and conduct of genome-wide association meta-analyses",
abstract = "Rigorous organization and quality control (QC) are necessary to facilitate successful genome-wide association meta-analyses (GWAMAs) of statistics aggregated across multiple genome-wide association studies. This protocol provides guidelines for (i) organizational aspects of GWAMAs, and for (ii) QC at the study file level, the meta-level across studies and the meta-analysis output level. Real-world examples highlight issues experienced and solutions developed by the GIANT Consortium that has conducted meta-analyses including data from 125 studies comprising more than 330,000 individuals. We provide a general protocol for conducting GWAMAs and carrying out QC to minimize errors and to guarantee maximum use of the data. We also include details for the use of a powerful and flexible software package called EasyQC. Precise timings will be greatly influenced by consortium size. For consortia of comparable size to the GIANT Consortium, this protocol takes a minimum of about 10 months to complete.",
author = "Winkler, {Thomas W.} and Day, {Felix R.} and Croteau-Chonka, {Damien C.} and Wood, {Andrew R.} and Adam Locke and Reedik M{\"a}gi and Teresa Ferreira and Tove Fall and Mariaelisa Graff and Justice, {Anne E.} and Jian'An Luan and Stefan Gustafsson and Randall, {Joshua C.} and Sailaja Vedantam and Tsegaselassie Workalemahu and Kilpel{\"a}inen, {Tuomas O.} and Andr{\'e} Scherag and Tonu Esko and Zolt{\'a}n Kutalik and Heid, {Iris M.} and Loos, {Ruth J.F.}",
note = "Funding Information: acKnoWleDGMents This work was supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (01ER1206 for I.M.H.); the Leenaards Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation (31003A-143914 for Z.K.); the US National Institutes of Health (DK078150, T32 HL007427 for D.C.C.-C.; R01DK075787 for T.E.); the UK Medical Research Council (MRC; U106179471, U106179472 for F.R.D.); the European Research Council (SZ-245 50371-GLUCOSEGENES-FP7-IDEAS-ERC for A.R.W.); the Targeted Financing from the Estonian Ministry of Science and Education (SF0180142s08 for T.E.); the Development Fund of the University of Tartu (SP1GVARENG for T.E.); the European Regional Development Fund to the Centre of Excellence in Genomics (EXCEGEN, 3.2.0304.11-0312 for T.E.); and FP7 (313010 for T.E.). We are also thankful for the GIANT Consortium and the many participating research groups that have allowed us to develop this protocol.",
year = "2014",
month = may,
doi = "10.1038/nprot.2014.071",
language = "English",
volume = "9",
pages = "1192--1212",
journal = "Nature Protocols",
issn = "1754-2189",
number = "5",
}