diff --git a/lib/release-ops.js b/lib/release-ops.js
index 3c1acfa..470b29f 100644
--- a/lib/release-ops.js
+++ b/lib/release-ops.js
@@ -139,7 +139,9 @@ function getPrereleaseVersion(currentVersion, prereleaseId, releaseType) {
  * @private
  */
 function getVersionTags() {
-    const tags = ShellOps.execSilent("git tag").trim().split("\n");
+
+    // Using `--merged` to only list tags whose commits are reachable from HEAD
+    const tags = ShellOps.execSilent("git tag --merged").trim().split("\n");
 
     return tags.reduce((list, tag) => {
         if (semver.valid(tag)) {
@@ -370,9 +372,10 @@ function writeChangelog(releaseInfo) {
  * Creates a release version tag and pushes to origin and npm.
  * @param {string} [prereleaseId] The prerelease ID (alpha, beta, rc, etc.).
  *      Only include when doing a prerelease.
+ * @param {string} [packageTag] Tag added to the package submitted to the npm registry.
  * @returns {Object} The information about the release.
  */
-function generateRelease(prereleaseId) {
+function generateRelease(prereleaseId, packageTag = prereleaseId ? "next" : "latest") {
 
     validateSetup();
 
@@ -382,7 +385,10 @@ function generateRelease(prereleaseId) {
     console.log("Calculating changes for release");
     const releaseInfo = calculateReleaseInfo(prereleaseId);
 
+    releaseInfo.packageTag = packageTag;
+
     console.log("Release is %s", releaseInfo.version);
+    console.log("Package tag is %s", releaseInfo.packageTag);
 
     console.log("Generating changelog");
     writeChangelog(releaseInfo);
@@ -444,7 +450,8 @@ function publishReleaseToGitHub(releaseInfo) {
     return repo.createRelease({
         tag_name: tag, // eslint-disable-line camelcase
         body: generateReleaseBody(releaseInfo.changelog),
-        prerelease: !!semver.prerelease(releaseInfo.version)
+        prerelease: !!semver.prerelease(releaseInfo.version),
+        make_latest: String(releaseInfo.packageTag === "latest") // eslint-disable-line camelcase
     }).then(() => {
         console.log("Posted release notes to GitHub");
     }).catch(ex => {
@@ -480,11 +487,7 @@ function publishRelease() {
     // if there's a prerelease ID, publish under "next" tag
     console.log("Publishing to npm");
 
-    let command = "npm publish";
-
-    if (semver.prerelease(releaseInfo.version)) {
-        command += " --tag next";
-    }
+    let command = `npm publish --tag ${releaseInfo.packageTag}`;
 
     if (process.env.NPM_OTP && /^\d+$/.test(process.env.NPM_OTP)) {
         command += ` --otp=${process.env.NPM_OTP}`;