diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f0e231b994c9f9e8c26bce4ede960bd48504d6ff..ab6b2cf33017ab91a2cea09d94a988d405485765 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ integration_se:
   stage: integration
   only: [merge_requests]
   except:
-    - $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /master/
+    - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME =~ master
   script:
   - hostname
   - ulimit -a
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ integration_pe:
   stage: integration
   only: [merge_requests]
   except:
-    - $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /master/
+    - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME =~ master
   script:
   - hostname
   - ulimit -a
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ override_inputBag:
   stage: integration
   only: [merge_requests]
   except:
-    - $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /master/
+    - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME =~ master
   script:
   - hostname
   - ulimit -a
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ override_fastq:
   stage: integration
   only: [merge_requests]
   except:
-    - $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /master/
+    - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME =~ master
   script:
   - hostname
   - ulimit -a
@@ -303,7 +303,8 @@ override_fastq:
 override_species:
   stage: integration
   only: [merge_requests]
-  except: [/master/]
+  except:
+    - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME =~ master
   script:
   - hostname
   - ulimit -a
@@ -325,7 +326,7 @@ consistency:
   stage: consistency
   only: [merge_requests]
   except:
-    - $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /master/
+    - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME =~ master
   script:
   - grep -m 1 \"Assigned\":.[0-9] SE_multiqc_data.json | grep -oe '\([0-9.]*\)' > assignedSE.txt
   - grep -m 1 \"Assigned\":.[0-9] PE_multiqc_data.json | grep -oe '\([0-9.]*\)' > assignedPE.txt