I wish to know what aspects of these technical documents are included and excluded while making a word count. Specifically, say, a figure caption, references, tables, table footnotes, page footnotes, abstract, publishing and copyright text, author names and designation, table of contents, list of tables and figures, page numbers, page headers etc.
In the absence of specific guidelines i would exclude the following: publishing and copyright information, authors, table of contents, list of tables and figures, references, page numbers, and page headers; and i would include (each section including its equations, tables, and figures; if applicable): title, abstract, keywords, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.
For speed and convenience, de facto word count is now usually taken from MSWord or Open Office Writer by selecting all text with CRTL-A.
This does not take into account the space occupied by figures, but this is understood to be of lesser importance than getting a speedy count, even though it will affect the total number of pages on paper.
The process will count entries in text tables as "words", as well as captions, footnotes, abstract, title, headings, author names, affiliations, appendices and references. Basically this is everything that had to be "written".
Page numbers, running titles, and repetitive copyright statements will be excluded as these are added by the publisher.
Hint 1: It helps journal and book publication if the page count is an even number so that each paper starts on the recto page. (Fiddle with the fonts.)
Hint 2: Some pedantic publishers push their own peculiar ideas of what a word count should include. Check beforehand.
Hi Nuruddin,
Academic journals have vastly different guidelines on exactly what is counted towards the limits for publication. These may be based on wordcount, character limit (e.g., for the running title), numerical limit (e.g., for references, figures, tables, keywords), or other criteria.
Here is an example of fairly typical publication guidelines:
(a) manuscript title
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Publishing