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Question: What are some reasons that have led journals to limit the number of references?

Question: What are some reasons that have led journals to limit the number of references?

I went down to the library and looked at the old issues of Nature (not because I want to single them out, but because the library happen to have all the issues since the 20s available on the stacks). After some binary search I've found that in December 1986 the instructions to the authors look like this (with no mention of limit to references)

and in October 1988 it became almost the same as present day (apologies for the flash... the lighting in the stacks wasn't good).

I went down to the library and looked at the old issues of Nature (not because I want to single them out, but because the library happen to have all the issues since the 20s available on the stacks). After some binary search I found that in December 1986 the instructions to the authors don't mention a limit to references:

GUIDE TO AUTHORS

Authors should be aware of the diversity of Nature's readership and should strive to be as widely understood as possible.
Review articles should be accessible to the whole readership. Most are commissioned, but unsolicited reviews are welcome (in which case prior consultation with the office is desirable).
Scientific articles are research reports whose conclusions are of general interest or which represent substantial advances of understanding. The text should not exceed 3,000 words and six displayed items (figures plus tables). The article should include an italic heading of about 50 words.
Letters to Nature are ordinarily 1,000 words long with no more than four displayed items. The first paragraph (not exceeding 150 words) should say what the letter is about, why the study it reports was undertaken and what the conclusions are.
Matters arising are brief comments (up to 500 words) on articles and letters recently published in Nature. The originator of a Matters Arising contribution should initially send his manuscript to the author of the original paper and both parties should, wherever possible, agree on what is to be submitted.

In October 1988 the guidelines it became almost the same as present day.

GUIDE TO AUTHORS

Please follow these guidelines so that your manuscript may be handled expeditiously.
Nature is an international journal covering all the sciences. [...] Because of the competition for space, many of the papers submitted for publication cannot be accepted. For this reason, and because brevity is a great assistance to readers, papers should be as brief as is consistent with intelligibility. Please note that one printed page of Nature, without diagrams or other interruptions of the text, has fewer than 1,300 words.

CATEGORIES OF PAPER

Review Articles survey recent developments in a field. Most are commissioned, but suggestions are welcome in the form of a one-page synopsis addressed to the Reviews Coordinator. Length is negotiable in advance but must not exceed six pages of Nature.
Articles are research reports whose conclusions are of general interest and which are sufficiently rounded to be a substantial advance in understanding. They should not have more than 3,000 words of text or more than six display items (figures and tables) and should not exceed more than five pages of Nature. [...] There should be fewer than 50 references.
Letters to Nature are short reports of outstanding novel findings whose implications are general and important enough to be of interest to those outside the field. Letters should not have more than 1,000 words of text or more than four display items and should not occupy more than two pages of Nature. The first paragraph should describe, in not more than 150 words, the origins and chief conclusions of the study. Letters should not have subheadings or more than 30 references.

Back in the 20s and 30s most of the items in Nature had no references whatsoever. By the 50s and 60s we start seeing articles more in the form of what we expect today, but the number of references are generally not too many. Even in the 70s and the 80s (before the change of rules) the majority of the articles do abide by the modern rules, with some exceptions. (This was in the letters section, so would have violated the 30 references rule; I note that in that particular issue this was the only one that I found to breach the rules, but there were several more letters with between 27 and 30 references.)

Back in the 20s and 30s most of the items in Nature had no references whatsoever. By the 50s and 60s we start seeing articles more in the form of what we expect today, but the number of references are generally not too many. Even in the 70s and the 80s (before the change of rules) the majority of the articles do abide by the modern rules, with occasional exceptions.