diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci_install-pkg.yml b/.github/workflows/ci_install-pkg.yml
index 193dc07..95dccf3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci_install-pkg.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci_install-pkg.yml
@@ -19,8 +19,6 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Check package
         run: |
-          pip install check-manifest
-          check-manifest
           python setup.py check --metadata --strict
 
       - name: Create package
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index cf448b8..712f2e7 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,18 +1,7 @@
-# Manifest syntax https://docs.python.org/2/distutils/sourcedist.html
-graft wheelhouse
+# Manifest syntax https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/deprecated/distutils/commandref.html#sdist-cmd
 
-recursive-exclude __pycache__  *.py[cod] *.orig
-
-# Include the README
-include *.md
-
-# Include the license file
-include LICENSE
-
-recursive-include torchsampler *.py
-
-# Include the Requirements
-include requirements.txt
+# FIXME: switching to a src/ layout would obviate the need for this file entirely.
+#        see https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/userguide/package_discovery.html#src-layout
 
 # Exclude build configs
 exclude *.yml
@@ -20,5 +9,3 @@ exclude *.yaml
 
 prune .github
 prune example*
-prune temp*
-prune test*
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 6b4e9db..b09bf97 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 torch>=1.3
 torchvision>=0.5
 pandas
+# only needed by __about__.py, which is deprecated:
+importlib_metadata; python_version<'3.8'
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 152f83b..946216e 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 [metadata]
 license_file = LICENSE
-description-file = README.md
 
 [flake8]
 max-line-length = 120
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 456dc49..589ece4 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,17 +1,9 @@
 """A setuptools based setup module."""
 
-import sys
 from pathlib import Path
 
 from setuptools import setup
 
-try:
-    from torchsampler import __about__ as about
-except ImportError:
-    # alternative https://stackoverflow.com/a/67692/4521646
-    sys.path.append("torchsampler")
-    import __about__ as about
-
 PATH_HERE = Path(__file__).parent
 
 with open(PATH_HERE / 'requirements.txt', encoding='utf-8') as fp:
@@ -20,16 +12,18 @@
 
 setup(
     name='torchsampler',
-    version=about.__version__,
-    url=about.__homepage__,
-    author=about.__author__,
-    author_email=about.__author_email__,
-    license=about.__license__,
-    description=about.__doc__,
+    use_scm_version=True,
+    url="https://github.com/ufoym/imbalanced-dataset-sample",
+    author="Ming, et al.",
+    author_email="a@ufoym.com",
+    license="MIT",
+    description="A (PyTorch) imbalanced dataset sampler for oversampling low classes"
+    "and undersampling high frequent ones.",
     long_description=long_description,
     long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
     packages=['torchsampler'],
     keywords='sampler,pytorch,dataloader',
+    setup_requires=['setuptools_scm'],
     install_requires=requirements,
     python_requires='>=3.6',
     include_package_data=True,
diff --git a/torchsampler/__about__.py b/torchsampler/__about__.py
index bd953c7..cef1e9e 100644
--- a/torchsampler/__about__.py
+++ b/torchsampler/__about__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,31 @@
-__version__ = "0.1.1"
-__author__ = "Ming, et al."
-__author_email__ = "a@ufoym.com"
-__license__ = "MIT"
-__homepage__ = "https://github.com/ufoym/imbalanced-dataset-sampler"
-__doc__ = "A (PyTorch) imbalanced dataset sampler for oversampling low frequent classes" \
-          " and undersampling high frequent ones."
+import sys
+
+if sys.version_info < (3, 8):
+    from importlib_metadata import distribution, PackageNotFoundError
+else:
+    from importlib.metadata import distribution, PackageNotFoundError
+
+import warnings
+
+warnings.warn(
+    "Use importlib.metadata.distribution('torchsampler').metadata instead of torchsampler.__about__.",
+    category=DeprecationWarning
+)
+
+try:
+    _m = distribution('torchsampler').metadata
+    __version__ = _m['version']
+    __author__ = _m['author']
+    __author_email__ = _m['author-email']
+    __license__ = _m['license']
+    __homepage__ = _m['homepage']
+    __doc__ = _m['summary']
+    del _m
+except PackageNotFoundError:
+    # package is not installed (i.e. we're probably in the build process itself)
+    pass
+
+del sys, distribution, PackageNotFoundError, warnings
 
 __all__ = [
     "__author__",