  The present research attempts to identify the impact of retracted papers on
previous or subsequent papers. We consider the 5693 retracted papers from 1975
to 2020 indexed in the Web of Science database based on bibliometric methods.
We use HistCite, Excel, and SPSS software as technical means. The findings
suggest a significant difference between the average number of retracted and
unretracted papers when cited in retracted papers. Furthermore, there is a
significant difference between the average number of unretracted and retracted
papers citing retracted papers. The reasons for the retraction of an article
may not be the previous retracted papers, yet unretracted papers may be
retracted later because of referring to (many) retracted papers. It is deduced
that proprietors of citation databases should carefully focus on these papers
by checking references to each new paper citing previously retracted papers.
