#get data from DB
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM publications") or error($cgi, "Error #1");
$sth->execute( ) or error($cgi, "Error #2: ".  $dbh->errstr(  ));


#loop through data
while (my $data = $sth->fetchrow_hashref) {

#pull out only the first 15 words from the pubText field 
#this is where I need suggestions, the code below does not work
while ($count < 15){
@copy = split " ", $data->{pubText};
$count ++
}

#print resulting data
print qq{
                  <td width="195" align="left" valign="top"><div class="newsBox"><span class="newsTitle">$data->{pubTitle}</span><br />
                      @copy
                      <a href="http://linkToFullArticle.html">More...</a>
                  </div></td>
};
}