3,986.

Amazing. (That is what I managed to cut my previously-5510-word paper down to). In some cases I think it's better as the cutting required me to rein in my natural tendency to be over-verbose.

(I also cut out one analysis that pretty much failed to reveal anything).

So now all it requires is some tweaking of how the Literature Cited is set up and I can actually send it off. And then wait in hope and fear for the thumbs up or thumbs down. Egad, I hate publishing. If I didn't have to do it for tenure/promotion/scholarly productivity, I wouldn't.