Preprint process
There are different stages involved when using a pre-print server:
① Authors send manuscript (SV version)
② Revisions are requested (RVx version), these can/should be uploaded again on the pre-print server
③ Journal accepts manuscript (AAM version)
④ Preliminary version is published online
⑤ Final version is published (VoR version)
If the journal allows publishing versions SV, RVx and AAM on a pre-print server, then these normally fulfill the OA requirements of funding agencies. There is no logic to forbidding the updating of pre-print versions.
Pre-print servers
These servers have different policies regarding
when one can submit to them. With ChemRxiv, once the paper has been accepted, it is no longer allowed to
add the manuscript on its server, this must be done before acceptance; for arXiv there is no such limitation, one can send the pre-print at any time. Furthermore, once it is available on ChemRxiv, the author can forward it directly to one of the journals in chemistry, and most of the information regarding authors, names,
ORCIDs, etc. should be passing along as well.
Updating versions on pre-print servers
In chemistry, there were some journals that did not allow using a pre-print server, or only for the first (SV) version, but not the revised ones (RVx).
The latter is silly.
If this would be applied, it would mean that journalX would have copyright of the manuscript, even after rejection. Logically speaking, the authors would not be able to modify anything after anymore because of the supposed copyright of journalX. Moreover, the referee reports of the reviewers are owned by the reviewers, not the journal. Again, the journal has no claim here.
The situation is different
after acceptance, when the authors sign a license to the journal to do its magic, typeset, copyediting the manuscript, etc. That part is clearly covered by the journal.
