diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d95f0a92fc46eba126efd6d4b008013860821678..24756f0b9a6a5f21e997b58720536ad0c4518311 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+New in version 1.9.6
+ * Fixed bug that caused wrong results when a + char was encounterd in read identifier.
+
+New in version 1.9.5
+ * Fixed bug that caused the rest of the score line to be ignored when a + char was encountered in it.
+
 New in version 1.9.4
  * removed .undef files
  * refactored code: now hashing a kmer and its reverse in the same loop.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index fdf809f4a1d18da2592bde598133da3fedd61da7..e2143e2c51a54c8233d96256c1efb1dbebefb5e6 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
 
 AC_PREREQ(2.59)
-AC_INIT(rock, 1.9.5)
+AC_INIT(rock, 1.9.6)
 
 
 AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM
diff --git a/src/ROCKparams.cpp b/src/ROCKparams.cpp
index 38a066fdca321089f2b36d2e2a330bb75ab2d44f..680bb6e1c74c400847e801569284b803906452fe 100755
--- a/src/ROCKparams.cpp
+++ b/src/ROCKparams.cpp
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ const int ROCKparams::undef_ext;
 
 void usage(int status) {
 	cout<<endl;
-	cout<<"ROCK 1.9.5                    Copyright (C) 2016-2021 Institut Pasteur"<<endl;
+	cout<<"ROCK 1.9.6                    Copyright (C) 2016-2021 Institut Pasteur"<<endl;
 	cout<<endl;
 	cout<<"Reducing Over-Covering K-mers within FASTQ file(s)"<<endl;
 	cout<<endl;