diff --git a/guix/import/github.scm b/guix/import/github.scm
index 55ea00a111..df5f6ff32f 100644
--- a/guix/import/github.scm
+++ b/guix/import/github.scm
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ;;; Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2019 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2018 Eric Bavier <bavier@member.fsf.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2019 Arun Isaac <arunisaac@systemreboot.net>
+;;; Copyright © 2019 Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>
 ;;;
 ;;; This file is part of GNU Guix.
 ;;;
@@ -186,7 +187,12 @@ the package e.g. 'bedtools2'.  Return #f if there is no releases"
                        (substring tag 0 (+ name-length 1))))
         (substring tag (+ name-length 1)))
        ;; some tags start with a "v" e.g. "v0.25.0"
+       ;; or with the word "version" e.g. "version.2.1"
        ;; where some are just the version number
+       ((string-prefix? "version" tag)
+        (if (char-set-contains? char-set:digit (string-ref tag 7))
+            (substring tag 7)
+            (substring tag 8)))
        ((string-prefix? "v" tag)
         (substring tag 1))
        ;; Finally, reject tags that don't start with a digit: