Citation of Preprints

EarthArXiv allows an author to upload updated versions of their preprint. For instance, an author may submit an initial preprint, receive feedback, and choose to upload a revised version of that preprint. The way EarthArXiv is implemented, all versions of a preprint remain on the server and are assigned the same DOI. This is design choice by the Center for Open Science and not something that can be easily changed. One implication of this is that citing a preprint is not straightforward. The DOI is not enough to uniquely identify a preprint as other versions with the same DOI may exist in the future. A simple workaround would be to recommend a citation style that includes the DOI and a "last accessed" value similar to how we cite web pages. We may also want to recommend "preprint" be included so that it is obvious from a citation that the work has not been peer reviewed. I think it would be good if we got out ahead of this issue and starting thinking collectively how preprints should be cited