diff --git a/bids_validator/version.py b/bids_validator/version.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 473b67475..000000000
--- a/bids_validator/version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,37 +0,0 @@
-from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function
-import os
-
-CLASSIFIERS = ["Development Status :: 3 - Alpha",
-               "Environment :: Console",
-               "Intended Audience :: Science/Research",
-               "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
-               "Operating System :: OS Independent",
-               "Programming Language :: Python",
-               "Topic :: Scientific/Engineering"]
-
-NAME = "bids-validator"
-MAINTAINER = "BIDS Developers"
-MAINTAINER_EMAIL = "bids-discussion@googlegroups.com"
-DESCRIPTION = "Python package for validation of BIDS projects."
-URL = "https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-validator"
-DOWNLOAD_URL = ""
-LICENSE = "MIT"
-AUTHOR = "PyBIDS developers"
-AUTHOR_EMAIL = "bids-discussion@googlegroups.com"
-PLATFORMS = "OS Independent"
-# No data for now
-REQUIRES = []
-
-
-def package_files(directory):
-    # from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27664504/how-to-add-package-data-recursively-in-python-setup-py
-    paths = []
-    for (path, directories, filenames) in os.walk(directory):
-        for filename in filenames:
-            paths.append(os.path.join('..', path, filename))
-    return paths
-
-
-PACKAGE_DATA = {
-    'bids_validator': package_files('bids_validator/rules')
-}
diff --git a/circle.yml b/circle.yml
index 1774f13c5..db6de28ac 100644
--- a/circle.yml
+++ b/circle.yml
@@ -42,6 +42,25 @@ jobs:
       - run: ./node_modules/.bin/gulp build && rsync -av --exclude=".*" --exclude="node_modules" --exclude="src" --exclude="tests" . ~/web_version/
       - store_artifacts:
           path: ~/web_version/
+  pypi_precheck:
+    docker:
+      - image: alpine:3.8
+    steps:
+      - checkout
+      - run:
+          name: Set up environment
+          command: |
+            apk --no-cache add ca-certificates git build-base
+      - run:
+          name: Install Python 3 and update setuptools
+          command: |
+            apk --no-cache add python3 python3-dev py3-cffi
+            python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel twine readme_renderer[md]
+      - run:
+          name: Check build and readme rendering
+          command: |
+            python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+            twine check dist/*
   deployment:
     docker:
       - image: node:8.11.3-alpine
@@ -59,6 +78,17 @@ jobs:
       # Set the version number
       - run: sed -i -E "s/0.0.0/$CIRCLE_TAG/" package.json
       - run: ./node_modules/.bin/publish
+      # Publish to PyPI
+      - run:
+          name: Install Python 3 and update setuptools
+          command: |
+            apk --no-cache add python3 python3-dev py3-cffi
+            python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel twine
+      - run:
+          name: Build and push to PyPI
+          command: |
+            python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+            twine upload dist/*
       # Update gh-pages demo site
       - run: git config --global user.email circleci@circleci
       - run: git config --global user.name CircleCI
@@ -91,10 +121,15 @@ workflows:
               only: /.*/
             tags:
               only: /.*/
+      - pypi_precheck:
+          filters:
+            tags:
+              only: /.*/
       - deployment:
           requires:
             - test
             - githubPagesTest
+            - pypi_precheck
           filters:
             branches:
               ignore: /.*/
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index e979da7cf..0e3d083fd 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,5 +1,34 @@
 [metadata]
-description-file = README.md
+name = bids-validator
+url = https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-validator
+author = PyBIDS developers
+author_email = bids-discussion@googlegroups.com
+maintainer = BIDS Developers
+maintainer_email = bids-discussion@googlegroups.com
+description = Validator for the Brain Imaging Data Structure
+long_description = file:README.md
+long_description_content_type="text/markdown"
+license = MIT
+classifiers =
+    Development Status :: 3 - Alpha
+    Environment :: Console
+    Intended Audience :: Science/Research
+    License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
+    Operating System :: OS Independent
+    Programming Language :: Python
+    Topic :: Scientific/Engineering
+
+[options]
+packages = find:
+include_package_data = True
+
+[options.package_data]
+bids_validator =
+    rules/*.json
+    tsv/*.json
+
+[bdist_wheel]
+universal=1
 
 [versioneer]
 VCS = git
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 2a0697866..4419af6ba 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,33 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
-import os
-from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+from setuptools import setup
 import versioneer
 
-
-PACKAGES = find_packages()
-
-# Get version and release info, which is all stored in bids/version.py
-ver_file = os.path.join('bids_validator', 'version.py')
-with open(ver_file) as f:
-    exec(f.read())
-
-opts = dict(name=NAME,
-            maintainer=MAINTAINER,
-            maintainer_email=MAINTAINER_EMAIL,
-            description=DESCRIPTION,
-            url=URL,
-            download_url=DOWNLOAD_URL,
-            license=LICENSE,
-            classifiers=CLASSIFIERS,
-            author=AUTHOR,
-            author_email=AUTHOR_EMAIL,
-            platforms=PLATFORMS,
-            version=versioneer.get_version(),
-            cmdclass=versioneer.get_cmdclass(),
-            packages=PACKAGES,
-            package_data=PACKAGE_DATA,
-            install_requires=REQUIRES)
-
-
-if __name__ == '__main__':
-    setup(**opts)
+setup(version=versioneer.get_version(),
+      cmdclass=versioneer.get_cmdclass())