diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 4e06459..67c834e 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+# description
+include README.rst
+
+# version
+include wc_lang/VERSION
+
 # license
 include LICENSE
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 818ae1d..295bf02 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<!-- [![PyPI package](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/wc_lang.svg)](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/wc_lang) -->
+[//]: # ( [![PyPI package](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/wc_lang.svg)](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/wc_lang) )
 [![Documentation](https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-latest-brightgreen.svg)](http://code.karrlab.org)
 [![Test results](https://circleci.com/gh/KarrLab/wc_lang.svg?style=shield&circle-token=f0edfe4f971e8871ebb097bdc7b10a270cd90a96)](https://circleci.com/gh/KarrLab/wc_lang)
 [![Test coverage](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/KarrLab/wc_lang/badge.svg?t=xViD7w)](https://coveralls.io/github/KarrLab/wc_lang)
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 640feca..3df7100 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-[metadata]
-description-file = README.rst
-
 [bdist_wheel]
 universal = 1
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1f992fa..8392186 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,7 +3,18 @@
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 from wc_utils.util.install import parse_requirements, install_dependencies
-import wc_lang
+import os
+
+# get long description
+if os.path.isfile('README.rst'):
+    with open('README.rst', 'r') as file:
+        long_description = file.read()
+else:
+    long_description = ''
+
+# get version
+with open('wc_lang/VERSION', 'r') as file:
+    version = file.read().strip()
 
 # parse dependencies and links from requirements.txt files
 with open('requirements.txt', 'r') as file:
@@ -18,10 +29,11 @@
 # install package
 setup(
     name="wc_lang",
-    version=wc_lang.__version__,
+    version=version,
     description="Language for describing whole-cell models",
+    long_description=long_description,
     url="https://github.com/KarrLab/wc_lang",
-    download_url='https://github.com/KarrLab/wc_lang/tarball/{}'.format(wc_lang.__version__),
+    download_url='https://github.com/KarrLab/wc_lang',
     author="Jonathan Karr",
     author_email="jonrkarr@gmail.com",
     license="MIT",
@@ -29,6 +41,7 @@
     packages=find_packages(exclude=['tests', 'tests.*']),
     package_data={
         'wc_lang': [
+            'VERSION',
         ],
     },
     install_requires=install_requires,
diff --git a/wc_lang/VERSION b/wc_lang/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a9ecc2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wc_lang/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.0.1
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/wc_lang/__init__.py b/wc_lang/__init__.py
index 99c4176..f2c0376 100644
--- a/wc_lang/__init__.py
+++ b/wc_lang/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
-__version__ = '0.0.1'
\ No newline at end of file
+import pkg_resources
+
+with open(pkg_resources.resource_filename('wc_lang', 'VERSION'), 'r') as file:
+    __version__ = file.read().strip()
+# :obj:`str`: version