diff --git a/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh b/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh
index 6a6253c2a016ef6d62ed3b1f85544eafcdde77d7..7450fb090e25d7be3c05741344f0650b167baf80 100644
--- a/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh
+++ b/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 bdbag --materialize ${1} --debug
 validateError=true
 bdbag --validate full ${1} && validateError=false
-if validateError
+if [ validateError ]
 then
     n=0
     until [ "${n}" -ge "3" ]
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ then
         sleep 15
     done
 fi
-if validateError
+if [ validateError ]
 then
     exit 1
 fi