Exposing my writing in a public git repository after publication?

Question

I use private git repositories to manage the code I use for projects. After I publish a paper, I like to make the code available by making the repository public. My field is Geography/GIScience, and uploading code is typically not required for article submissions. I mostly refer friends/colleagues to this code and link the repositories from my website.

I also version control my manuscripts (typically an Emacs' .org file, .md, or a .tex file) within the same repository I use for the project. I find that its convenient to have the code and writing in the same repo since I code, write, and jot ideas simultaneously during a project.

Are there any potential negative consequences of exposing my writing in these repositories too? Would it be seen as unprofessional? Are licensing issues with this? Is it a bad idea to include things like reviewers' comments and responses to reviewers in here?

Is there a better approach for this? Would it be a good idea to use a submodule for writing that remains private even after I make the root repository public? I feel that this may be the way to go, but I also feel that submodules introduce some (unnecessary) complexity and I don't understand them well.

Answer 1

To add to @Nate Eldredge's answer, my usual work flow is to do everything on a private repo, and then when I publish, move the things I want public over to a separate public repo. Your publisher may or may not have a problem with the sources for the manuscript being part of that repo, as has been mentioned the policy is probably the same as that for achieving the authors accepted version. As public archiving of the author accepted manuscript is a requirement of nearly all my funders and of the government assessment of research output here, I'd never publish in a journal that didn't allow this. More than that, I'm not sure I'd want anything to do with a publisher that didn't allow some version of the manuscript to be public.

Answer 2

If you're like most people, you probably include comments in your tex files that may not be meant for public consumption: mistakes that you commented out, ideas for future projects that you don't want someone else to do before you, or general remarks that are a little too candid.

Some embarrassing examples are at https://twitter.com/overheardonaph, taken from tex source files submitted to arXiv.