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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.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/nprot.2014.071

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nature protocols

Publication Date

05/2014

Volume

9

Pages

1192 - 1212

Addresses

Department of Genetic Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.

Keywords

Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium, Quality Control, Software, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Genome-Wide Association Study