diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b63fd3b..6a08ac9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -21,3 +21,10 @@ Please note that D3 is provided via the asset pipeline and you do *not* need to
 Then add it to your manifest file, most probably at `app/assets/javascripts/application.js`:
 
     //= require d3
+
+## Development
+
+To update the D3 version contained in the gem, you can run the following rake task
+```bash
+bundle exec rake d3:update_version
+```
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 14cfe0b..545ee86 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,2 +1,20 @@
 require 'bundler'
 Bundler::GemHelper.install_tasks
+
+namespace :d3 do
+  desc 'Update d3 version'
+  task :update_version do
+    `curl -o app/assets/javascripts/d3.js https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mbostock/d3/master/d3.js`
+    `curl -o app/assets/javascripts/d3.min.js https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mbostock/d3/master/d3.min.js`
+    `cp app/assets/javascripts/d3.js app/assets/javascripts/d3.v3.js`
+    `cp app/assets/javascripts/d3.min.js app/assets/javascripts/d3.v3.min.js`
+    version = `grep 'version: ".*"' app/assets/javascripts/d3.js | cut -d '"' -f 2`.strip
+    message = <<-MSG
+      Please update the version to #{version} manually in the following files:
+      * CHANGELOG.md
+      * README.md
+      * lib/d3/rails/version.rb
+    MSG
+    puts message.strip.squeeze ' '
+  end
+end