The open access policy, Policy AC02: Open Access to Scholarly Articles, was drafted by the Open Access Task Force, a task force composed of Penn State faculty and staff, then approved through the university's shared governance process.

• March 24, 2017: Provost Nicholas Jones charged the Open Access Task Force with "promoting open and free access to Penn State scholarly output" and requested it prepare a report providing "a draft Policy Statement on Open Access for Penn State" and "recommendations on procedures and practices to implement the Policy should it be approved."
• March 12, 2019: The task force co-chairs, Greg Madden, then the Senior Advisor for Research Computing and Cyberinfrastructure in the Office of the Vice President for Research, and Karen Estlund, then the Associate Dean for Technology and Digital Strategies in the University Libraries, presented a forensic on open access during a Faculty Senate meeting.
• Late March 2019: Faculty Senate's Committee on Libraries, Information Science, and Technology approved the task force's report, including the draft of the open access policy.
• April 23, 2019: The Faculty Senate voted to endorse the task force's report, including the draft of the open access policy.
• August 28, 2019: President Barron requested the Libraries implement the report's recommendations.
• Fall 2019: The Office of General Counsel finalized the policy text.
• November 18, 2019: The policy was approved by the President's Council.