Q: What does the word limit for case reports in the SVN journal include?

Firstly, we understand you are referring to the journal Stroke and Vascular Neurology (SVN) published by The BMJ. In that case, as you will see in the overview of their case reports, the abstract is known as the summary. The word limit for the summary is 150 words and this is distinct from the word limit of the main paper. This is also clear in the submission template linked at the end of the overview.

Coming to references and legends, no, these are typically not included in the word count of the main paper for most journals, and seems to be the case here as well. The best way to determine this would be to go through some case reports published on SVN. In this paper we referenced, the word count of the main paper, at a rough glance, seems to be within or around 1,000.

However, you should not worry too much about the word count. You should of course try and keep it within the limit, but if it exceeds by a bit during the first submission, that should be okay. Journals allow a little bit of leeway. Additionally, in case you are exceeding the limit slightly, you may mention this during the submission in a cover letter. We provided the same advice to another researcher only recently: Are the title page and authors' contributions included in the manuscript word limit?

Here are other queries along similar lines:

• Does the word count of a manuscript include numbered references?
• Are scientific names included in the word count for a research paper title?

Hope that helps. All the best for your submission!