diff --git a/ppmutils/__init__.py b/ppmutils/__init__.py
index fe923d0..e67f195 100644
--- a/ppmutils/__init__.py
+++ b/ppmutils/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 """
 
 __title__ = "PPM Utils"
-__version__ = '0.8.0'
+__version__ = '0.8.1-rc.1'
 __author__ = "Bryan Larson"
 __license__ = "BSD 2-Clause"
 __copyright__ = "Copyright 2011-2020 Harvard Medical School Department of Biomedical Informatics"