diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 4afb4c1ca..de5601ebf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -161,6 +161,8 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0  # fetch tags for setuptools-scm
       - name: Set up Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
diff --git a/can/__init__.py b/can/__init__.py
index 53aec7160..324803b9e 100644
--- a/can/__init__.py
+++ b/can/__init__.py
@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@
 messages on a can bus.
 """
 
+import contextlib
 import logging
+from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
 from typing import Any, Dict
 
-__version__ = "4.4.2"
 __all__ = [
     "ASCReader",
     "ASCWriter",
@@ -124,6 +125,9 @@
 from .thread_safe_bus import ThreadSafeBus
 from .util import set_logging_level
 
+with contextlib.suppress(PackageNotFoundError):
+    __version__ = version("python-can")
+
 log = logging.getLogger("can")
 
 rc: Dict[str, Any] = {}
diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index 54318883f..1322a2f83 100755
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import ctypes
 import os
 import sys
+from importlib.metadata import version as get_version
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 
 # If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
@@ -16,7 +17,6 @@
 # documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
 sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath(".."))
 
-import can  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
 from can import ctypesutil  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
 
 # -- General configuration -----------------------------------------------------
@@ -27,9 +27,10 @@
 # |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
 # built documents.
 #
+# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
+release: str = get_version("python-can")
 # The short X.Y version.
-version = can.__version__.split("-", maxsplit=1)[0]
-release = can.__version__
+version = ".".join(release.split(".")[:2])
 
 # General information about the project.
 project = "python-can"
diff --git a/doc/development.rst b/doc/development.rst
index f635ffc06..c83f0f213 100644
--- a/doc/development.rst
+++ b/doc/development.rst
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ Manual release steps (deprecated)
 ---------------------------------
 
 - Create a temporary virtual environment.
+- Create a new tag in the repository. Use `semantic versioning <http://semver.org>`__.
 - Build with  ``pipx run build``
-- Create and upload the distribution: ``python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel``.
 - Sign the packages with gpg ``gpg --detach-sign -a dist/python_can-X.Y.Z-py3-none-any.whl``.
 - Upload with twine ``twine upload dist/python-can-X.Y.Z*``.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 08b501c60..99a54a5df 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools >= 67.7"]
+requires = ["setuptools >= 67.7", "setuptools_scm>=8"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
@@ -84,8 +84,6 @@ mf4 = ["asammdf>=6.0.0"]
 
 [tool.setuptools.dynamic]
 readme = { file = "README.rst" }
-version = { attr = "can.__version__" }
-
 [tool.setuptools.package-data]
 "*" = ["README.rst", "CONTRIBUTORS.txt", "LICENSE.txt", "CHANGELOG.md"]
 doc = ["*.*"]
@@ -95,6 +93,9 @@ can = ["py.typed"]
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 include = ["can*"]
 
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+# can be empty if no extra settings are needed, presence enables setuptools_scm
+
 [tool.mypy]
 warn_return_any = true
 warn_unused_configs = true