diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fbcb8e963..a9d671f3b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ def main():
         __maintainer__,
         __license__,
         __description__,
-        __longdesc__,
         __url__,
         DOWNLOAD_URL,
         CLASSIFIERS,
@@ -38,6 +37,9 @@ def main():
 
     root_dir = op.dirname(op.abspath(getfile(currentframe())))
 
+    with open(op.join(root_dir, 'README.md'), encoding='utf-8') as f:
+        long_description = f.read()
+
     version = None
     cmdclass = {}
     if op.isfile(op.join(root_dir, 'tedana', 'VERSION')):
@@ -53,7 +55,7 @@ def main():
         name=__packagename__,
         version=__version__,
         description=__description__,
-        long_description=__longdesc__,
+        long_description=long_description,
         author=__author__,
         author_email=__email__,
         maintainer=__maintainer__,
diff --git a/tedana/__init__.py b/tedana/__init__.py
index 01ac1625d..5f5511055 100644
--- a/tedana/__init__.py
+++ b/tedana/__init__.py
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
     __url__,
     __packagename__,
     __description__,
-    __longdesc__
 )
 
 import warnings
diff --git a/tedana/info.py b/tedana/info.py
index 4c42ea112..ae4dead84 100644
--- a/tedana/info.py
+++ b/tedana/info.py
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@
 """
 Base module variables
 """
-from pathlib import Path
-readme_path = Path(__file__).parent.parent.joinpath("README.md")
 
 from ._version import get_versions
 __version__ = get_versions()['version']
@@ -23,7 +21,6 @@
 __packagename__ = 'tedana'
 __description__ = ('TE-Dependent Analysis (tedana) of multi-echo functional '
                    'magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data.')
-__longdesc__ = readme_path.open().read()
 
 DOWNLOAD_URL = (
     'https://github.com/ME-ICA/{name}/archive/{ver}.tar.gz'.format(