diff --git a/workflow/rna-seq.nf b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
index a17b8bc4f3bdf6907ae1884c87186dd8605ce6af..b86cae63b7010a553acf9f79571663937f79f201 100644
--- a/workflow/rna-seq.nf
+++ b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
@@ -841,7 +841,7 @@ process inferMetadata {
       fi
     fi
 
-    if [ \${speciesError} ] && [ "${speciesForce}" = "" ]
+    if [ !\${speciesError} ] && [ "${speciesForce}" = "" ]
     then
       # infer experimental setting from dedup bam
       echo -e "LOG: infer experimental setting from dedup bam" >> ${repRID}.inferMetadata.log