diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index e75c0f570..43860d397 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -44,6 +44,16 @@ The <action> type attribute can be add,update,fix,remove.
     <title>Commons Math Release Notes</title>
   </properties>
   <body>
+    <!-- NOTE:
+    The description below is specially formatted so as to improve the layout of the generated release notes:
+    The parsing process removes all line feeds, replacing them with a single space.
+    The Velocity template in resources/templates has been enhanced to replace pairs of adjacent spaces
+    with a new-line in the release notes. (These spaces are ignored when displaying HTML).
+    If the output is not quite correct, check for invisible trailing spaces!
+     -->
+    <release version="3.1" date="TBD" description="
+">
+    </release>
     <!-- NOTE:
     The description below is specially formatted so as to improve the layout of the generated release notes:
     The parsing process removes all line feeds, replacing them with a single space.
