diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc8c577
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Changes
+
+Version 1.0.4 (2018-010-31)
+
+We closed a total of 5 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 2 pull requests, since our last release on 2018-09-06.
+
+## Issues Closed
+  - pypi files do not include tests (#9)
+  - Submodule (#14)
+  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)
+
+## Pull Requests
+  - Submodule (#14)
+  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)
+
+The following individuals contributed to this release:
+
+  - Taylor Oshan
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/gitcount.ipynb b/tools/gitcount.ipynb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26ef7c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/gitcount.ipynb
@@ -0,0 +1,717 @@
+{
+ "cells": [
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## PySAL Change Log Statistics\n",
+    "\n",
+    "This notebook generates the summary statistics for a package. \n",
+    "\n",
+    "It assumes you are running this under the `tools` directory at the toplevel of the package\n",
+    "\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Change the values only in the next cell"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 1,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "package_name = 'spint'\n",
+    "release_date = '2018-010-31'\n",
+    "start_date = '2018-09-06'"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "This notebook will generate a file in the current directory with the name \"changelog_VERSION.md\". You can edit and append this on front of the CHANGELOG file for the package release."
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 2,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from __future__ import print_function\n",
+    "import os\n",
+    "import json\n",
+    "import re\n",
+    "import sys\n",
+    "import pandas\n",
+    "\n",
+    "from datetime import datetime, timedelta\n",
+    "from time import sleep\n",
+    "from subprocess import check_output\n",
+    "try:\n",
+    "    from urllib import urlopen\n",
+    "except:\n",
+    "    from urllib.request import urlopen\n",
+    "\n",
+    "import ssl\n",
+    "import yaml\n",
+    "\n",
+    "context = ssl._create_unverified_context()\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 3,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "CWD = os.path.abspath(os.path.curdir)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 4,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "'/Users/toshan/dev/spint/tools'"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 4,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "CWD"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 5,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "datetime.datetime(2018, 9, 6, 0, 0)"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 5,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "since_date = '--since=\"{start}\"'.format(start=start_date)\n",
+    "since_date\n",
+    "since = datetime.strptime(start_date+\" 0:0:0\", \"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S\")\n",
+    "since"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 6,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "# get __version__\n",
+    "f = \"../{package}/__init__.py\".format(package=package_name)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "with open(f, 'r') as initfile:\n",
+    "     exec(initfile.readline())\n",
+    "   "
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Total commits by subpackage"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 7,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "cmd = ['git', 'log', '--oneline', since_date]\n",
+    "ncommits = len(check_output(cmd).splitlines())"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 8,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "16"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 8,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "ncommits"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## List Contributors"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "Some of our contributors have many aliases for the same identity. So, we've added a mapping to make sure that individuals are listed once (and only once). "
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 9,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "identities = {'Levi John Wolf': ('ljwolf', 'Levi John Wolf'),\n",
+    "              'Serge Rey': ('Serge Rey', 'Sergio Rey', 'sjsrey', 'serge'),\n",
+    "              'Wei Kang': ('Wei Kang', 'weikang9009'),\n",
+    "              'Dani Arribas-Bel': ('Dani Arribas-Bel', 'darribas')\n",
+    "}\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def regularize_identity(string):\n",
+    "    string = string.decode()\n",
+    "    for name, aliases in identities.items():\n",
+    "        for alias in aliases:\n",
+    "            if alias in string:\n",
+    "                string = string.replace(alias, name)\n",
+    "    if len(string.split(' '))>1:\n",
+    "        string = string.title()\n",
+    "    return string.lstrip('* ')"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 10,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "author_cmd = ['git', 'log', '--format=* %aN', since_date]"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 11,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from collections import Counter"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 12,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "ncommits = len(check_output(cmd).splitlines())\n",
+    "all_authors = check_output(author_cmd).splitlines()\n",
+    "counter = Counter([regularize_identity(author) for author in all_authors])\n",
+    "#        global_counter += counter\n",
+    "#        counters.update({'.'.join((package,subpackage)): counter})\n",
+    "unique_authors = sorted(set(all_authors))\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 13,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "unique_authors = counter.keys()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 14,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "[u'Taylor Oshan']"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 14,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "unique_authors"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Disaggregate by PR, Issue"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 15,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from datetime import datetime, timedelta\n",
+    "ISO8601 = \"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ\"\n",
+    "PER_PAGE = 100\n",
+    "element_pat = re.compile(r'<(.+?)>')\n",
+    "rel_pat = re.compile(r'rel=[\\'\"](\\w+)[\\'\"]')\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 16,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "def parse_link_header(headers):\n",
+    "    link_s = headers.get('link', '')\n",
+    "    urls = element_pat.findall(link_s)\n",
+    "    rels = rel_pat.findall(link_s)\n",
+    "    d = {}\n",
+    "    for rel,url in zip(rels, urls):\n",
+    "        d[rel] = url\n",
+    "    return d\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def get_paged_request(url):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"get a full list, handling APIv3's paging\"\"\"\n",
+    "    results = []\n",
+    "    while url:\n",
+    "        #print(\"fetching %s\" % url, file=sys.stderr)\n",
+    "        f = urlopen(url)\n",
+    "        results.extend(json.load(f))\n",
+    "        links = parse_link_header(f.headers)\n",
+    "        url = links.get('next')\n",
+    "    return results\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def get_issues(project=\"pysal/pysal\", state=\"closed\", pulls=False):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Get a list of the issues from the Github API.\"\"\"\n",
+    "    which = 'pulls' if pulls else 'issues'\n",
+    "    url = \"https://api.github.com/repos/%s/%s?state=%s&per_page=%i\" % (project, which, state, PER_PAGE)\n",
+    "    return get_paged_request(url)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def _parse_datetime(s):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Parse dates in the format returned by the Github API.\"\"\"\n",
+    "    if s:\n",
+    "        return datetime.strptime(s, ISO8601)\n",
+    "    else:\n",
+    "        return datetime.fromtimestamp(0)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def issues2dict(issues):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Convert a list of issues to a dict, keyed by issue number.\"\"\"\n",
+    "    idict = {}\n",
+    "    for i in issues:\n",
+    "        idict[i['number']] = i\n",
+    "    return idict\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def is_pull_request(issue):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Return True if the given issue is a pull request.\"\"\"\n",
+    "    return 'pull_request_url' in issue\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def issues_closed_since(period=timedelta(days=365), project=\"pysal/pysal\", pulls=False):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Get all issues closed since a particular point in time. period\n",
+    "can either be a datetime object, or a timedelta object. In the\n",
+    "latter case, it is used as a time before the present.\"\"\"\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    which = 'pulls' if pulls else 'issues'\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    if isinstance(period, timedelta):\n",
+    "        period = datetime.now() - period\n",
+    "    url = \"https://api.github.com/repos/%s/%s?state=closed&sort=updated&since=%s&per_page=%i\" % (project, which, period.strftime(ISO8601), PER_PAGE)\n",
+    "    allclosed = get_paged_request(url)\n",
+    "    # allclosed = get_issues(project=project, state='closed', pulls=pulls, since=period)\n",
+    "    filtered = [i for i in allclosed if _parse_datetime(i['closed_at']) > period]\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    # exclude rejected PRs\n",
+    "    if pulls:\n",
+    "        filtered = [ pr for pr in filtered if pr['merged_at'] ]\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    return filtered\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def sorted_by_field(issues, field='closed_at', reverse=False):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Return a list of issues sorted by closing date date.\"\"\"\n",
+    "    return sorted(issues, key = lambda i:i[field], reverse=reverse)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def report(issues, show_urls=False):\n",
+    "    \"\"\"Summary report about a list of issues, printing number and title.\n",
+    "    \"\"\"\n",
+    "    # titles may have unicode in them, so we must encode everything below\n",
+    "    if show_urls:\n",
+    "        for i in issues:\n",
+    "            role = 'ghpull' if 'merged_at' in i else 'ghissue'\n",
+    "            print('* :%s:`%d`: %s' % (role, i['number'],\n",
+    "                                        i['title'].encode('utf-8')))\n",
+    "    else:\n",
+    "        for i in issues:\n",
+    "            print('* %d: %s' % (i['number'], i['title'].encode('utf-8')))\n",
+    "\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 17,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "all_issues = {}\n",
+    "all_pulls = {}\n",
+    "total_commits = 0\n",
+    "#prj='pysal/libpysal'\n",
+    "prj = 'pysal/{package}'.format(package=package_name)\n",
+    "issues = issues_closed_since(since, project=prj,pulls=False)\n",
+    "pulls = issues_closed_since(since, project=prj,pulls=True)\n",
+    "issues = sorted_by_field(issues, reverse=True)\n",
+    "pulls = sorted_by_field(pulls, reverse=True)\n",
+    "n_issues, n_pulls = map(len, (issues, pulls))\n",
+    "n_total = n_issues + n_pulls\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 18,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "issue_listing = []\n",
+    "for issue in issues:\n",
+    "    entry = \"{title} (#{number})\".format(title=issue['title'],number=issue['number'])\n",
+    "    issue_listing.append(entry)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 19,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "pull_listing = []\n",
+    "for pull in pulls:\n",
+    "    entry = \"{title} (#{number})\".format(title=pull['title'],number=pull['number'])\n",
+    "    pull_listing.append(entry)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 20,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "['Submodule (#14)', 'adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)']"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 20,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "pull_listing"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 21,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "message = \"We closed a total of {total} issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through {pr} pull requests\".format(total=n_total, pr=n_pulls)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 22,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "message = \"{msg}, since our last release on {previous}.\".format(msg=message, previous=str(start_date))\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 23,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "'We closed a total of 5 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 2 pull requests, since our last release on 2018-09-06.'"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 23,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "message"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 24,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "message += \"\\n\\n## Issues Closed\\n\""
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 25,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "We closed a total of 5 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 2 pull requests, since our last release on 2018-09-06.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Issues Closed\n",
+      "\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "print(message)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 26,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "issues = \"\\n\".join([\"  - \"+issue for issue in issue_listing])\n",
+    "message += issues\n",
+    "message += \"\\n\\n## Pull Requests\\n\"\n",
+    "pulls = \"\\n\".join([\"  - \"+pull for pull in pull_listing])\n",
+    "message += pulls"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 27,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "We closed a total of 5 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 2 pull requests, since our last release on 2018-09-06.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Issues Closed\n",
+      "  - pypi files do not include tests (#9)\n",
+      "  - Submodule (#14)\n",
+      "  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Pull Requests\n",
+      "  - Submodule (#14)\n",
+      "  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "print(message)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 28,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "people = \"\\n\".join([\"  - \"+person for person in unique_authors])"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 29,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "  - Taylor Oshan\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "print(people)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 30,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "message +=\"\\n\\nThe following individuals contributed to this release:\\n\\n{people}\".format(people=people)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 31,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "We closed a total of 5 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 2 pull requests, since our last release on 2018-09-06.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Issues Closed\n",
+      "  - pypi files do not include tests (#9)\n",
+      "  - Submodule (#14)\n",
+      "  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Pull Requests\n",
+      "  - Submodule (#14)\n",
+      "  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)\n",
+      "\n",
+      "The following individuals contributed to this release:\n",
+      "\n",
+      "  - Taylor Oshan\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "print(message)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 32,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "head = \"# Changes\\n\\nVersion {version} ({release_date})\\n\\n\".format(version=__version__, release_date=release_date)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 33,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "# Changes\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Version 1.0.4 (2018-010-31)\n",
+      "\n",
+      "We closed a total of 5 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 2 pull requests, since our last release on 2018-09-06.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Issues Closed\n",
+      "  - pypi files do not include tests (#9)\n",
+      "  - Submodule (#14)\n",
+      "  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)\n",
+      "\n",
+      "## Pull Requests\n",
+      "  - Submodule (#14)\n",
+      "  - adapting spint to newest version of libpysal (#13)\n",
+      "\n",
+      "The following individuals contributed to this release:\n",
+      "\n",
+      "  - Taylor Oshan\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "print(head+message)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 34,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "outfile = 'changelog_{version}.md'.format(version=__version__)\n",
+    "with open(outfile, 'w') as of:\n",
+    "    of.write(head+message)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  }
+ ],
+ "metadata": {
+  "kernelspec": {
+   "display_name": "Python [Root]",
+   "language": "python",
+   "name": "Python [Root]"
+  },
+  "language_info": {
+   "codemirror_mode": {
+    "name": "ipython",
+    "version": 2
+   },
+   "file_extension": ".py",
+   "mimetype": "text/x-python",
+   "name": "python",
+   "nbconvert_exporter": "python",
+   "pygments_lexer": "ipython2",
+   "version": "2.7.12"
+  }
+ },
+ "nbformat": 4,
+ "nbformat_minor": 2
+}