Dissertation word count: what counts and what does not

A dissertation word count is not the number Word shows at the bottom of the screen. It is the number your university defines, and universities define it differently: one counts footnotes and another leaves them out, one counts the contents page, one counts the appendices.

EdCitation publishes this guide as part of the how to write a dissertation series. It sets out what nine universities' own regulations and handbooks say, read at source on 26 September 2026: Edinburgh and Warwick in the UK, the University of Pennsylvania in the US, McGill in Canada, Sydney and the Australian National University (ANU) in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Undergraduate, master's and doctoral rules are all here, and the table says which is which. Final checks before submitting a thesis covers Manchester, Birmingham, the LSE and Melbourne, so they are not repeated.

EdCitation never writes any part of a dissertation. Check your paper turns a handbook's instructions into a free checklist, printing every rule next to the sentence it was taken from, and Verify references checks the reference list that most word counts leave out.

What does a dissertation word count include?

The main text, always; beyond that, whatever your regulations list, and the lists disagree. The table gives each university's limit, what it counts, what it leaves out, and what happens when a dissertation runs over.

How the table was built

Each row comes from the university's own page or document, linked under References. The most recent copy of NUS's thesis format guidelines we could read is dated 1 August 2020. University College London's regulations were sought too, but their page sat behind a check for robots and could not be read.

Does the word count include the reference list and in-text citations?

The reference list, almost never; in-text citations, often, and here the universities split. Every set of rules read for this guide leaves the bibliography or reference list out, except Auckland, whose Doctoral Thesis Policy (University of Auckland, 2026) sets 100,000 words "including all appendices and references", and McGill, which limits pages rather than words.

In-text citations are a different question, because they sit inside the sentences. Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science (n.d.), Edinburgh SPS from here on, counts "in-text references" by name in its coursework rule, which applies from 2024/25 and sends MSc dissertations to their own handbook. Penn's International Relations programme (University of Pennsylvania International Relations Program, n.d.) says citations do not count. Edinburgh's postgraduate regulations (University of Edinburgh, 2026) count "footnotes and references" and exclude the "bibliography" in the same sentence; we read "references" there as the citations in the text, since the list is named separately, but the regulation does not define it.

Why it matters in author-date styles

In APA or Harvard, every citation is a name and a year in brackets inside the text, so a program counts it, and a literature review with 200 citations carries several hundred words of them. Where your rules are silent, count them in.

Are footnotes and endnotes counted in a dissertation word count?

In four of the sets of rules read, yes; in two, no; in one, only some. Sydney (n.d.) counts all footnotes and endnotes, and so do Edinburgh's research regulations, Edinburgh SPS's coursework rule and NUS's thesis guidelines. Warwick's History department (University of Warwick Department of History, 2025) and ANU's College of Arts and Social Sciences (Australian National University College of Arts and Social Sciences, n.d.) leave them out.

Penn draws the line inside the note: a footnote that only cites a source is free, but "substantive footnotes", notes with more than citation information in them, count towards the 25,000 words. NUS makes an exception within its own rule: for a PhD or LLM in Law, footnotes are excluded, though they count for every other field.

The practical point: a history dissertation in Chicago notes and a psychology dissertation in APA can hold the same argument and produce very different counts, depending on where the citations live. If your regulations exclude footnotes, do not move argument into them to save words. Penn's programme warns against using footnotes as a "dumping ground" for surplus material.

Do appendices, tables and figures count towards the word limit?

Appendices, no, at every university read except Auckland and McGill. Tables and figures are where the rules divide most.

Appendices

Excluded from the count at Edinburgh, Warwick, Penn, Sydney and NUS. That does not make them a place for overflow. McGill Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (2026) warns that everything in an appendix is open to examination, and Auckland counts appendices inside its 100,000 words, so moving a chapter there saves nothing. The appendix is for material the reader may want to check, such as instruments, consent forms and code, not for argument.

Tables, figures and captions

Three positions appear in the rules read. Edinburgh SPS counts tables, charts and graphs. NUS excludes maps, charts, statistical tables, graphs and illustrations. Edinburgh's research-degree regulations exclude "image captions" and say nothing either way about the text inside a table, so a results table there is a question for your supervisor. Writing up quantitative results covers how to set tables out once you know whether they count.

Do quotations, the abstract and front matter count?

Quotations count wherever a rule mentions them; the abstract and front matter depend entirely on the university.

Quotations

Warwick (University of Warwick Department of History, 2025) is the only handbook read that names them, and it counts them as part of the main text. None of the others excludes them. A long block quotation is words in your dissertation, whoever wrote them first.

Abstract and front matter

Edinburgh's research regulations are the unusual case. They count "preface material", giving the table of contents, acknowledgements, list of abbreviations and list of illustrations as examples, while leaving out the abstract and lay summary. Warwick does nearly the opposite for its undergraduates: an abstract or a contents list, if you include one, counts, while acknowledgements and lists of abbreviations do not. Sydney sets no word limit on the abstract in the thesis. The front matter is short, but on an Edinburgh PhD a long list of abbreviations comes out of your 100,000.

What happens if a dissertation goes over the word limit?

Anything from nothing to a fixed penalty; in the research regulations, usually a request made before submitting rather than a penalty after. These figures are these universities' own, not a norm.

Margins and penalties in the rules read

• ANU's College of Arts and Social Sciences applies no penalty for "the initial 10% excess words", then a 10% penalty.
• Warwick History takes 1 mark off for each 100 words, or part of 100, over a 9,000-word dissertation, one point on the 100-point scale.
• Edinburgh SPS takes 5 marks off whether the work is one word over or 500, and a marker may ignore text beyond the limit if the work is very far over.
• Penn's International Relations has no mark penalty, but a thesis over 25,000 words is not considered for the programme's thesis prizes.
• Sydney lets a doctoral thesis exceed 80,000 by no more than 20,000 words, and a research master's thesis exceed 50,000 by no more than 10,000, with the written permission of the Dean or Associate Dean.
• Auckland allows a longer thesis only in exceptional academic circumstances, on application with the supervisor's support.
• Edinburgh's research regulations allow the College to grant extra length, on the supervisor's recommendation, in exceptional circumstances; NUS needs the supervisor's and head of department's approval.

None of the research regulations read offers a silent margin. A thesis over the limit without permission is simply over the limit.

Where the number goes

Some universities ask you to print the count. ANU wants it declared on the final page, without appendices, bibliography and footnotes; Edinburgh SPS wants the actual count on the coversheet provided on Learn. Manchester and the LSE, covered in the final-checks guide, want it on the contents page and the cover.

Why does Word's count differ from the handbook's?

Because Word counts what is in the document, and the handbook counts what it defines. Microsoft (n.d.-b) says Word counts words as you type and shows the total in the status bar, and that, unless you select some text, it counts all the text in the document. That means the reference list, the appendices, the headings and every citation in brackets are in the number.

Footnotes go the other way. Microsoft's developer documentation for Word's statistics (Microsoft, n.d.-a) says footnotes and endnotes are left out unless the count is asked to include them. Google Docs, by its own help page (Google, n.d.), counts everything except headers, footers and footnotes, unless you select part of the document. So on a thesis with notes, a default count in either program is too low where your rules count footnotes, and too high where they exclude the reference list.

How to count only what your rules count

1. Copy the rule. Paste your handbook's word-count sentence into Check your paper and read its checklist beside the original sentence.
2. Make a counting copy. Save a second copy of the file, never your only copy.
3. Delete what is excluded. Take out whatever your rule leaves out: usually the reference list and appendices, sometimes the abstract, captions or tables.
4. Include the notes if they count. If footnotes count, make sure your program's count includes them: Microsoft's and Google's own pages both describe counts that leave them out by default.
5. Count, and record the method. Write down the number and what you excluded, in case your marker counts differently.
6. Print it where asked. On the cover, the coversheet, the final page or the contents page, as your handbook says.

What should I do when the handbook is silent?

Ask in writing, and keep the answer. Edinburgh SPS tells students who are unsure to contact the Course Organiser, and its own rule opens "Unless stated otherwise in written guidance", which makes the written guidance for your course the one that wins.

Until you have an answer, count conservatively: include anything a program would count, such as in-text citations, headings, quotations and table text, and exclude only what the rules name. A dissertation under the limit on the strictest reading is under it on every reading. The word limit is the one number in a dissertation you can check completely before handing it in.

How EdCitation helps with the word count

EdCitation is the best tool for the part of a dissertation the word count leaves out, because each reference is checked against the publisher's own record, and none is ever written for you. Every university read except Auckland and McGill leaves the reference list out of the count, so no count ever checks it; Verify references does, free, with no account. Give it the whole dissertation and every entry is marked verified, doubtful ("check this") or not found, with retractions flagged; a source it could not reach says "could not check", never "not found". It also finds any citation with no entry behind it, and any entry nobody cites.

Check your paper reads a handbook's instructions into a checklist, free, with each rule shown beside the sentence it came from. We ran it on two of the word-count sections read for this guide. Given Warwick History's section, it returned one rule, a word count of at most 9,000, beside the penalty line "1 mark off for each 100 words (or part thereof) over 9,000 words", and set aside four sentences for you to read, among them "Contents list is included in the word count" and the 4,500-word limit for a plan or essay. Given Edinburgh SPS's section, which leaves the limit to each course's Learn page, it returned no rule and set aside six sentences, including the one listing what is and is not counted. Neither checklist turns the list of what is excluded into rules, so read the handbook's own list yourself.

Mechanics QA holds the file to the APA 7 student paper's formatting and reports any comments or tracked changes still in it. Theoretics QA judges the draft against the handbook's own instructions, with quotations from it, and never rewrites anything. Paying for a year at once saves 25% (pricing), and no tool here can promise anyone a mark.

Quick questions

Does a dissertation word count include references?

The reference list, almost never: of the nine universities read, only Auckland counts it, and McGill limits pages instead. In-text citations are another matter; Edinburgh SPS counts them and Penn's International Relations programme does not.

Does Word's word count include footnotes?

Not by default. Microsoft's documentation says Word's statistics leave out footnotes and endnotes unless told to include them, and Google Docs leaves out footnotes, headers and footers.

Can EdCitation check my dissertation's word count rules?

Check your paper reads the handbook's instructions into a free checklist, each rule beside its source sentence; on the two word-count sections we tried, read each rule against that sentence. Judging the draft against the handbook is Theoretics QA, part of Max.

What is the penalty for going over a dissertation word limit?

Whatever your handbook sets. Warwick History takes 1 mark per 100 words over 9,000, Edinburgh SPS takes 5 marks however far over, and ANU's arts college allows 10% before a 10% penalty.

References

• Australian National University College of Arts and Social Sciences. (n.d.). Word limits. https://cass.anu.edu.au/current-students/coursework-policy-and-guidelines/word-limits
• Google. (n.d.). Count the words in a document. Google Docs Editors Help. https://support.google.com/docs/answer/39003
• McGill University Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. (2026). Preparation of a thesis. https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis/thesis-guidelines/preparation
• Microsoft. (n.d.-a). Document.ComputeStatistics method (Word). Microsoft Learn. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.document.computestatistics
• Microsoft. (n.d.-b). Show word count. Microsoft Support. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/training/show-word-count
• National University of Singapore. (2020). General guidelines and instructions on format of research thesis and electronic submission (RO.1042/03). https://www.math.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/08/General-Guidelines-and-Instructions-on-Format-of-Research-Thesis-and-Electronic-Submission.pdf
• University of Auckland. (2026). Doctoral thesis policy and procedures. https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about-us/about-the-university/policy-hub/research-innovation/doctoral-study/undertaking-research/doctoral-thesis-policy-procedures.html
• University of Edinburgh. (2026). Degree regulations and programmes of study: Postgraduate degree programme regulations 2026/27. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/regulations/PGDRPS2026-27.pdf
• University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Science. (n.d.). Assessment deadlines and penalties. https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/students/your-studies/assessment-deadlines-penalties
• University of Pennsylvania International Relations Program. (n.d.). Thesis requirements. https://ir.sas.upenn.edu/advising/thesis-writers/thesis-requirements
• University of Sydney. (n.d.). Preparing your thesis. https://www.sydney.edu.au/research/graduate-research/current-students/thesis-and-examination/preparing-your-thesis.html
• University of Warwick Department of History. (2025). Coursework. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/undergraduate/assess-coursework/