This supplement to BMC Genetics contains the proceedings of the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 (GAW14), which was held September 7–10, 2004, in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. These workshops have been held since 1982 and now are held biennially. They serve as a forum for statisticians, epidemiologists, geneticists, and other scientists interested in these fields to introduce novel statistical methods and to evaluate and compare novel and existing methods. At each GAW, an existing dataset is selected, and a set of simulated data is devised such that statistical questions of wide and current interest may be addressed. These data are made available to scientists worldwide who then report the results of their analyses of these data at the GAW meeting. GAW attendees must submit an analysis of one of these datasets, or be a workshop organizer or a dataset provider. The purpose of these workshops is to allow the comparison of statistical methodologies for genetic epidemiology using the same, well-described datasets. More information about GAW, including details of upcoming workshops, may be found at .
