diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 30ebc7fd..255892ab 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -23,38 +23,4 @@ more revision will likely be needed.
 
 # Making a release
 
-To make a release you'll need to be a maintainer with GitHub
-permissions to push to the master and gh-pages branches, and
-Sonatype permissions to publish.
-
-Here are the steps, which should be automated but aren't (PR
-welcome!):
-
-  1. write release notes in NEWS.md following the format
-     already in there. update README with the new version.
-     Commit.
-  2. create a signed git tag "vX.Y.Z"
-  3. start sbt; `show version` should confirm that the version was
-     taken from the tag
-  4. clean
-  5. test (double check that release works)
-  6. doc (double check that docs build, plus build docs
-     to be copied to gh-pages later)
-  7. if test or doc fails, delete the tag, fix it, start over.
-  8. publishSigned
-  9. make a separate clone of the repo in another directory and
-      check out the gh-pages branch
-  10. /bin/rm -rf latest/api on gh-pages checkout
-  11. copy config/target/api from master checkout to vX.Y.Z in
-      gh-pages so you have vX.Y.Z/index.html
-  12. copy config/target/api from master checkout into latest/
-      so you have latest/api/index.html
-  13. commit all that to gh-pages, check the diff for sanity
-      (latest/api should be mostly just changed timestamps)
-  14. push gh-pages
-  15. log into sonatype website and go through the usual hoops
-      (under Staging Repositories, search for com.typesafe, verify the
-      artifacts in it, close, release)
-  16. push the "vX.Y.Z" tag
-  17. announce release, possibly wait for maven central to sync
-      first
+See RELEASING.md
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 3dffc59e..8ff53991 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# 1.4.0: October 11, 2019
+
+- `application.conf` variables can now ovverride variables in `reference.conf` [#619](https://github.com/lightbend/config/issues/167)
+- performance improvement through capacity hint for `ArrayList` [#648](https://github.com/lightbend/config/pull/648)
+
 # 1.3.4: April 18, 2019
 
 - it is now possible to override any configuration setting from environment variables ([#620](/../../pull/620)) thanks to [@andreaTP](https://github.com/andreaTP)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5f24a47c..e2f29a46 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -105,12 +105,12 @@ You can find published releases on Maven Central.
     <dependency>
         <groupId>com.typesafe</groupId>
         <artifactId>config</artifactId>
-        <version>1.3.4</version>
+        <version>1.4.0</version>
     </dependency>
 
 sbt dependency:
 
-    libraryDependencies += "com.typesafe" % "config" % "1.3.4"
+    libraryDependencies += "com.typesafe" % "config" % "1.4.0"
 
 Link for direct download if you don't use a dependency manager:
 
diff --git a/RELEASING.md b/RELEASING.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..08d4723b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/RELEASING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# Making a release
+
+To make a release you'll need to be a maintainer with GitHub
+permissions to push to the master and gh-pages branches, and
+Sonatype permissions to publish.
+
+Here are the steps, which should be automated but aren't (PR
+welcome!):
+
+  1. write release notes in NEWS.md following the format
+     already in there. update README with the new version.
+     Commit.
+  2. create a signed git tag "vX.Y.Z"
+  3. start sbt; `show version` should confirm that the version was
+     taken from the tag
+  4. clean
+  5. test (double check that release works)
+  6. doc (double check that docs build, plus build docs
+     to be copied to gh-pages later)
+  7. if test or doc fails, delete the tag, fix it, start over.
+  8. publishSigned
+  9. make a separate clone of the repo in another directory and
+      check out the gh-pages branch
+  10. /bin/rm -rf latest/api on gh-pages checkout
+  11. copy config/target/api from master checkout to vX.Y.Z in
+      gh-pages so you have vX.Y.Z/index.html
+  12. copy config/target/api from master checkout into latest/
+      so you have latest/api/index.html
+  13. commit all that to gh-pages, check the diff for sanity
+      (latest/api should be mostly just changed timestamps)
+  14. push gh-pages
+  15. log into sonatype website and go through the usual hoops
+      (under Staging Repositories, search for com.typesafe, verify the
+      artifacts in it, close, release)
+  16. push the "vX.Y.Z" tag
+  17. announce release, possibly wait for maven central to sync
+      first