I submitted my first journal paper to IEEE today, and when I considered posting it on ArXiv just to be safe from scooping, I noticed that IEEE has a policy for submitted content, which does not mention anything about the paper being allowed on ArXiv after it has been submitted to IEEE.
But, since IEEE allows posting a submitted paper on institutional repositories etc. as long as the copyright notice is displayed, I'm assuming I can publish it on ArXiv too, since they may have accidentally ommitted mentioning it, thinking that everyone would first put their pre-print on ArXiv and only then submit to IEEE. They didn't expect someone like me to submit to IEEE and then put it on ArXiv. Even TechRxiv's FAQ is ambiguous. Although IEEE's manual on page 88 states:
IEEE does not restrict the rights of authors to use their IEEEcopyrighted articles in their own teaching, training, or work responsibilities, or those of their institutions or employers. In any preprint version archived by the author after submission, IEEE requires that IEEE will be credited as copyright holder. Upon publication of the work, authors are asked to include the article’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
To put my paper on ArXiv or TechRxiv now, I'll have to follow IEEE's policy of "IEEE must be credited as the copyright holder with the following statement included on the initial screen displaying IEEE-copyrighted material:". I don't understand what this "initial screen" is. Should I mention the copyright below the title of my paper or anywhere on the paper, as long as it is on the first page of the paper?
ps: TechRxiv mentions "Includes permission to reuse previously published or copyrighted material, if applicable". Again, I'm assuming I can submit to TechRxiv if I mention the copyright on the first page?