You usually will not have to exclude in-text citations, however the Postgraduate Research Regulations (Available from the MARP Site) does state:
"Excluded from the word length is the material preceding the main text of the thesis, (e.g. the title page, contents and abstract), citations, and the material following the main text of the thesis (e.g. the appendices, and the list of references and/or the bibliography)"
Manual word count exclusion in Microsoft Word
- Create a copy of your paper, so you are not working with your document.
- Delete the other elements such as references and/or appendices as per your guidance
- In the 'Home' tab in Word, choose the 'Replace' button.
- In 'Find what' type the characters \(*\)
- Click 'Use Wildcards'
- Click 'Replace All'
This will delete anything in a bracket () in the paper so your word count will then be accurate.
Please note: This will only work in referencing styles that use brackets for in-text citations, and will delete any additional brackets in your paper so be careful!
If you use a referencing style that uses [] or {} brackets, you can replace the () in the string of characters and it will also work.
Software is regularly updated and If this method no longer works, please email facultylibrarians@lancaster.ac.uk . Please double check that you have to exclude citations as this is not a standard approach (Except at PGR).