25-Year Fallout: Landmark 2000 Roundup Study Retracted Over Ghostwriting and Undisclosed Industry Ties

Landmark 2000 Study Retracted After Decades of Controversy

A highly cited 2000 paper published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology that concluded glyphosate-based herbicides like Roundup posed no serious health risks has been formally retracted, closing a 25-year chapter that exposed how corporate influence can distort scientific literature and shape regulatory decisions.

What the Retraction Says

In a retraction notice issued last week, editor-in-chief Martin van den Berg flagged multiple, serious faults: the authors failed to include carcinogenicity studies that were available at the time, there were undisclosed contributions by Monsanto employees, and questions remain about financial compensation and authorship. The paper ranks among the top 0.1% most-cited studies on glyphosate and has long influenced regulators, courts and policy bodies worldwide.

History Of Concern

Concerns were first raised publicly in 2002, when critics wrote to the journal and publisher Elsevier about conflicts of interest, lack of transparency and insufficient editorial independence. The issue resurfaced dramatically in 2017 after internal Monsanto documents made public during litigation showed company scientists coordinating what has been described as ghostwriting. One internal email even suggested giving the paper's contributors Roundup-branded polo shirts as a 'token of appreciation.'

Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard science historian who co-authored a September paper documenting extensive problems with the 2000 study, said the retraction was 'long overdue' but warned the scientific community needs better mechanisms to detect and remove fraudulent research.

Impact And Legal Context

The 2000 study has been cited by agencies and institutions from the Canadian Forest Service to the US Congress and the International Court of Justice. Its retraction arrives against a backdrop of major litigation: the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate in 2015 as 'probably carcinogenic to humans,' prompting restrictions and bans in several countries. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto, announced plans to phase out Roundup residential sales in the US in 2023 amid mounting lawsuits.

What Comes Next

Experts say the retraction could influence ongoing litigation and regulatory reviews, though its immediate impact on agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency is uncertain. Researchers also warn that ghostwritten, conflicted or otherwise compromised papers likely persist in the literature and are difficult to uncover without deep investigations or legal discovery.

Takeaway: The retraction underscores long-standing concerns about undisclosed industry involvement in scientific publishing and strengthens calls for greater transparency, independent peer review, and robust processes for identifying and retracting compromised research.