A browser-based word counter for LaTeX manuscripts, built by the Ecological Complexity Lab.
Live app → Ecological-Complexity-Lab.github.io/paper_word_count
All processing happens locally in your browser — your files are never uploaded anywhere.
- Section-level counts — select exactly which sections contribute to the total
- Smart default selection — IMRAD sections auto-selected for research papers; all body sections auto-selected for reviews and other paper types (see Paper types)
- Abstract & special sections highlighted separately (Author Summary, Significance Statement, etc. are detected automatically)
- Captions and math can be included or excluded via options
- Word limit tracker with a colour-coded progress bar
- Compare mode — load two versions of a manuscript and see a side-by-side diff by section
- Handles
\input{}/\include{}— multi-file projects work out of the box - Ignores the preamble,
\maketitleblock, bibliography, and supplementary material
- Click the upload area (or drag and drop) and select one or more
.texfiles. - If you have a multi-file project, upload all the files at once — the tool will auto-detect the main file (the one with
\documentclass). - Use the section tree on the left to tick/untick which sections count toward the total.
- Adjust Options (include math, include captions, word limit) as needed.
- Upload both
.texfiles. - One file is automatically set as the main file (indigo pill).
- ⌘ / Ctrl + click the second file's pill to set it as the compare file (amber pill). Compare mode activates immediately.
- The compare dashboard shows:
- Total word counts for each file side by side
- Abstract, special sections, and captions as dual cards with a diff
- A section-by-section table — sections matched by title, with colour-coded diffs (blue = more in B, orange = more in A)
- Sections present in only one file are listed separately at the bottom
- Document element counts (equations, figures, tables, citations) for both files
- To exit compare mode, ⌘ / Ctrl + click the amber file again to deselect it.
The tool automatically adapts its default section selection to the paper structure.
IMRAD stands for Introduction, Methods, Results, And Discussion — the standard structure of empirical research articles. When the tool detects an Introduction or Background section, it pre-selects the core IMRAD sections (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions) and their subsections. Other sections such as Acknowledgements, Data Availability, and Author Contributions are excluded from the default count, as journals typically do not count them toward the word limit.
For papers without a recognisable Introduction or Background section, all body sections are selected by default, excluding obvious metadata headings (Acknowledgements, Data Availability, Author Contributions, Funding, etc.). You can always manually adjust the selection in the section tree.
| Included by default | Excluded by default | Never counted |
|---|---|---|
| Abstract | Math environments | Preamble |
| Body sections (see Paper types) | Figure/table captions | \maketitle block (title, authors, affiliations) |
| Special pre-body sections | Bibliography / references | |
| Supplementary material |
npm install
npm run devRequires Node.js ≥ 18. Built with React + Vite + Tailwind CSS.
Developed by the Ecological Complexity Lab, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.