In the present study, we reanalyzed the data sets of the Study of Addiction Genetics and Environment (SAGE), the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) and the Australian family study of alcohol use disorder (OZ-ALC). Using the following analytic strategies, we expected to discover the novel (i.e., previously unimplicated) risk loci for alcohol dependence. First, we combined SAGE and COGA datasets to increase the sample sizes and power (with site-to-site variation and sample overlapping being considered), which may be able to detect some novel risk loci missed in previous studies. Second, we set AAs as the discovery sample. The top-ranked SNP list in AAs would be different from those in the previous studies that used EAs, Germans or Australians as the discovery sample. Third, we used replication and confirmation design to reduce the chance of false positive findings, and thus increase α level, which may be able to detect some novel risk loci missed in previous studies due to too conservative Bonferroni correction. Fourth, we completely separated EAs and AAs in the analysis to increase the population homogeneity,
