Fig. 3

The effect of GWAS in generating exceptionally studied genes. a A significantly elevated number of studies were published on complement factor H following its association with macular degeneration via GWAS in 2005 [2]. Solid line is the predicted publication history from the model of Pfeiffer and Hoffmann [38], points indicate actual publication counts, and starred points indicate years with a statistically significant excess (one-sided Bonferroni-corrected p<0.05). b The total number of genes exhibiting an unusual excess in publications peaked in 2009, as did the number of those genes that were recently newly associated with complex disease via GWAS. c The number of genes newly associated with complex disease through GWAS has grown since the inception of GWAS. d The proportion of genes exhibiting an unusual excess in publications that were recently identified in GWAS peaked at roughly 20% in 2009 and has since declined