Does Word Count Include References and Bibliographies?

One of the most common questions students ask when finishing an essay or dissertation is: "Do I need to include my reference list in the final word count?" The short answer is usually no, but it depends heavily on your university's specific guidelines.

The Standard Rule for Bibliographies

In the vast majority of UK, US, and Australian universities, the final bibliography or reference list at the end of your document is excluded from your total word count. This is because universities want to assess your actual prose, analysis, and argumentation—not the length of the titles of the books you read.

What About In-Text Citations?

This is where things get tricky. Standard word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs will automatically count in-text citations (e.g., (Smith, 2023, p. 45)). Depending on your institution's rules:

• Some universities explicitly state that in-text citations must be excluded.
• Others allow them to be included because manually removing them is too difficult for markers to verify.

How to Accurately Exclude References

If your rubric requires you to exclude citations and bibliographies, trying to do this manually in Word is a nightmare. This is exactly why we built CountMyPaper.