diff --git a/workflow/rna-seq.nf b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
index e3f8eafd62ed7f1294a5fd76c7455629087c7562..f76abd03ebffe26d14fd85487b7db33efc9286db 100644
--- a/workflow/rna-seq.nf
+++ b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
@@ -842,7 +842,7 @@ process inferMetadata {
       fi
     fi
 
-    if [ !\${speciesError} ]
+    if !\${speciesError}
     then
       # infer experimental setting from dedup bam
       echo -e "LOG: infer experimental setting from dedup bam" >> ${repRID}.inferMetadata.log