Glyphosate is a widely used broad-spectrum, nonselective herbicide. Over the years, we have followed the controversial discussions on its safety for humans (here is what Christoph wrote back in 2017).

And there is a new turn in this story! In 2017, a lawsuit uncovered internal emails from chemical giant Monsanto suggesting its employees helped ghostwrite an influential paper that claimed to find no evidence for the company’s widely used glyphosate herbicide, Roundup, causing cancer. Now, the scientific journal that published this paper in 2000 recently announced that the paper has been retracted.

Why? Because the now-retracted paper is in the top 0.1% of most cited studies in the glyphosate-related academic research field and citation rates barely budged after Monsanto’s hidden involvement was revealed – and the paper continued to be used in policy documents.