diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index cc4a743b8..314361434 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
     <groupId>org.embl.mobie</groupId>
     <artifactId>mobie-viewer-fiji</artifactId>
-    <version>4.4.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>4.4.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
 
     <!-- force javadoc generation to fetch errors:    -->
     <!-- mvn javadoc:javadoc | grep error -->
diff --git a/pom.xml.releaseBackup b/pom.xml.releaseBackup
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cc4a743b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pom.xml.releaseBackup
@@ -0,0 +1,249 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+    <parent>
+        <groupId>org.scijava</groupId>
+        <artifactId>pom-scijava</artifactId>
+        <version>36.0.0</version>
+    </parent>
+
+    <groupId>org.embl.mobie</groupId>
+    <artifactId>mobie-viewer-fiji</artifactId>
+    <version>4.4.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+
+    <!-- force javadoc generation to fetch errors:    -->
+    <!-- mvn javadoc:javadoc | grep error -->
+    <!--  ../scijava-scripts/release-version.sh - -skip-version-check - -skip-license-update -->
+    <!-- mvn install -Dmaven.test.skip=true -Dscijava.app.directory=/Users/tischer/Desktop/Fiji/Fiji-MoBIE-beta.app -->
+    <!-- mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.skip=true -Dscijava.app.directory=/Users/tischer/Desktop/Fiji/Fiji-MoBIE.app -->
+    <!-- ../scijava-scripts/release-version.sh - -skip-version-check  - -skip-license-update -->
+
+    <url>https://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji</url>
+    <name>MoBIE Fiji Viewer</name>
+    <description>Fiji viewer for MoBIE projects</description>
+    <inceptionYear>2018</inceptionYear>
+    <organization>
+        <name>EMBL</name>
+        <url>http://embl.de/</url>
+    </organization>
+    <licenses>
+        <license>
+            <name>Simplified BSD License</name>
+            <distribution>repo</distribution>
+        </license>
+    </licenses>
+    <developers>
+        <developer>
+            <id>tischi</id>
+            <name>Christian Tischer</name>
+            <roles>
+                <role>lead</role>
+                <role>developer</role>
+                <role>debugger</role>
+                <role>reviewer</role>
+                <role>support</role>
+                <role>maintainer</role>
+            </roles>
+        </developer>
+    </developers>
+    <contributors>
+        <contributor>
+            <name>Kimberly Meechan</name>
+            <roles>
+                <role>developer</role>
+                <role>debugger</role>
+                <role>reviewer</role>
+                <role>support</role>
+            </roles>
+        </contributor>
+    </contributors>
+    <mailingLists>
+        <mailingList>
+            <name>Image.sc Forum</name>
+            <archive>https://forum.image.sc/</archive>
+        </mailingList>
+    </mailingLists>
+    <scm>
+        <connection>scm:git:https://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji</connection>
+        <developerConnection>scm:git:git@github.com:mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji</developerConnection>
+        <tag>mobie-viewer-fiji-4.0.7</tag>
+        <url>https://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji</url>
+    </scm>
+    <issueManagement>
+        <system>GitHub</system>
+        <url>https://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji/issues</url>
+    </issueManagement>
+    <ciManagement>
+        <system>Github Actions</system>
+        <url>https://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji/actions</url>
+    </ciManagement>
+    <properties>
+        <package-name>de.embl.cba.mobie</package-name>
+        <license.licenseName>bsd_2</license.licenseName>
+        <license.copyrightOwners>EMBL</license.copyrightOwners>
+        <enforcer.skip>true</enforcer.skip>
+
+        <bigdataviewer-playground.version>0.8.0</bigdataviewer-playground.version>
+        <imagej-utils.version>0.6.9</imagej-utils.version>
+        <mobie-io.version>2.2.3</mobie-io.version>
+        <trove.version>1.0.2</trove.version>
+        <annotations.version>16.0.2</annotations.version>
+
+        <!-- Version 1.6.0-scijava-3-SNAPSHOT of j3dcore addresses a minor issue
+        https://github.com/fiji/3D_Viewer/issues/26
+
+        1.6.0-scijava-3-SNAPSHOT is not released on any repository,
+        so you'd have to build it locally from https://github.com/scijava/java3d-core
+
+        Alternatively, as the fix included in 1.6.0-scijava-3-SNAPSHOT is not critical,
+        the easiest is to use version 1.6.0-scijava-2 instead, which is available
+        on a central repository.
+        -->
+        <j3dcore.version>1.6.0-scijava-2</j3dcore.version>
+
+        <!-- TableSaw -->
+        <tablesaw-core.version>0.43.1</tablesaw-core.version>
+        <tablesaw-parquet.version>0.10.0</tablesaw-parquet.version>
+
+        <!-- NB: Deploy releases to the SciJava Maven repository. -->
+        <releaseProfiles>sign,deploy-to-scijava</releaseProfiles>
+
+    </properties>
+
+    <repositories>
+        <repository>
+            <id>scijava.public</id>
+            <url>https://maven.scijava.org/content/groups/public</url>
+        </repository>
+    </repositories>
+
+    <dependencies>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>net.imagej</groupId>
+            <artifactId>imagej-legacy</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <!-- SIFT Registration, TODO: does this ship with Fiji anyway? -->
+            <groupId>mpicbg</groupId>
+            <artifactId>mpicbg</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <!-- TurboReg Registration, TODO: could come from update site BIG-EPFL -->
+            <groupId>sc.fiji</groupId>
+            <artifactId>TurboReg_</artifactId>
+            <version>2.0.0</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>sc.fiji</groupId>
+            <artifactId>bigdataviewer-playground</artifactId>
+            <version>${bigdataviewer-playground.version}</version>
+            <exclusions>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>net.imagej</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>imagej</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>net.imglib2</groupId>
+            <artifactId>imglib2</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>net.imglib2</groupId>
+            <artifactId>imglib2-cache</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>sc.fiji</groupId>
+            <artifactId>bigdataviewer-core</artifactId>
+<!--            <version>10.4.12-SNAPSHOT</version>-->
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>sc.fiji</groupId>
+            <artifactId>bigdataviewer-vistools</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>sc.fiji</groupId>
+            <artifactId>spim_data</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.embl.mobie</groupId>
+            <artifactId>mobie-io</artifactId>
+            <version>${mobie-io.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <!--  https://github.com/fiji/3D_Viewer/pull/33#event-8572718504  -->
+            <groupId>sc.fiji</groupId>
+            <artifactId>3D_Viewer</artifactId>
+            <version>4.0.5</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.scijava</groupId>
+            <artifactId>j3dcore</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>de.embl.cba</groupId>
+            <artifactId>imagej-utils</artifactId>
+            <version>${imagej-utils.version}</version>
+            <exclusions>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>net.imagej</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>imagej</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.jetbrains</groupId>
+            <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
+            <version>${annotations.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.formdev</groupId>
+            <artifactId>flatlaf</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>net.imagej</groupId>
+            <artifactId>ij</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>trove</groupId>
+            <artifactId>trove</artifactId>
+            <version>${trove.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>tech.tablesaw</groupId>
+            <artifactId>tablesaw-core</artifactId>
+            <version>${tablesaw-core.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>net.tlabs-data</groupId>
+            <artifactId>tablesaw_${tablesaw-core.version}-parquet</artifactId>
+            <version>${tablesaw-parquet.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>info.picocli</groupId>
+            <artifactId>picocli</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>net.imagej</groupId>
+            <artifactId>imagej</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
+            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId>
+            <version>5.4.2</version>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
+            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId>
+            <version>5.4.2</version>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.github.erosb</groupId>
+            <artifactId>everit-json-schema</artifactId>
+            <version>1.14.2</version>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
+    </dependencies>
+</project>
diff --git a/release.properties b/release.properties
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9b195669a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#release configuration
+#Tue Mar 05 17:20:44 CET 2024
+scm.commentPrefix=[maven-release-plugin] 
+project.scm.org.embl.mobie\:mobie-viewer-fiji.url=https\://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji
+exec.pomFileName=pom.xml
+pushChanges=false
+releaseStrategyId=default
+project.dev.org.embl.mobie\:mobie-viewer-fiji=4.4.1-SNAPSHOT
+project.scm.org.embl.mobie\:mobie-viewer-fiji.connection=scm\:git\:https\://github.com/mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji
+project.rel.org.embl.mobie\:mobie-viewer-fiji=4.4.0
+projectVersionPolicyConfig=<projectVersionPolicyConfig>${projectVersionPolicyConfig}</projectVersionPolicyConfig>\n
+scm.tag=mobie-viewer-fiji-4.4.0
+remoteTagging=true
+exec.additionalArguments=-Dgpg.skip\=true 
+scm.branchCommitComment=@{prefix} prepare branch @{releaseLabel}
+projectVersionPolicyId=default
+scm.url=scm\:git\:git@github.com\:mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji
+scm.tagNameFormat=@{project.artifactId}-@{project.version}
+pinExternals=false
+preparationGoals=clean verify
+scm.releaseCommitComment=@{prefix} prepare release @{releaseLabel}
+exec.snapshotReleasePluginAllowed=false
+project.scm.org.embl.mobie\:mobie-viewer-fiji.developerConnection=scm\:git\:git@github.com\:mobie/mobie-viewer-fiji
+exec.activateProfiles=deploy-to-scijava
+project.scm.org.embl.mobie\:mobie-viewer-fiji.tag=mobie-viewer-fiji-4.0.7
+scm.developmentCommitComment=@{prefix} prepare for next development iteration
+scm.rollbackCommitComment=@{prefix} rollback the release of @{releaseLabel}
+completedPhase=generate-release-poms