diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 659eadf19924560e144dd8fe67b08e999c287781..fb8278fc8178566f9e1d93ae91f9ed2270f3c269 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ parseMetadata:
   - spike=$(singularity run 'docker://bicf/python3:2.0.1_indev' python3 ./workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py -r Replicate_RID -m "./test_data/meta/metaTest.csv" -p spike)
   - species=$(singularity run 'docker://bicf/python3:2.0.1_indev' python3 ./workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py -r Replicate_RID -m "./test_data/meta/metaTest.csv" -p species)
   - readLength=$(singularity run 'docker://bicf/python3:2.0.1_indev' python3 ./workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py -r Replicate_RID -m "./test_data/meta/metaTest.stageNew.csv" -p readLength)
-  - readLength=""${readLength}
     echo -e "${endsMeta},${endsManual},${stranded},${spike},${species},${readLength},${exp},${study},${rep}" > design.csv
   - pytest -m parseMetadata
 
diff --git a/workflow/rna-seq.nf b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
index 9b77129a3b66f325d61c3bf87ba3a0466ef90da0..1443869ba42180f4ec83b52fb4cf15c078e1c7a5 100644
--- a/workflow/rna-seq.nf
+++ b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
@@ -239,7 +239,6 @@ process parseMetadata {
 
     # get read length metadata
     readLength=\$(python3 ${script_parseMeta} -r ${repRID} -m "${experiment}" -p readLength)
-    readLength=""\${readLength}
     echo -e "LOG: read length metadata parsed: \${readLength}" >> ${repRID}.parseMetadata.log
 
     # gave design file
diff --git a/workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py b/workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py
index 6257aec1e6d8f99528fafca091f7b6d5286f277a..500054264f7c8c50310da92d9995f432930318d3 100644
--- a/workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py
+++ b/workflow/scripts/parseMeta.py
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ def main():
     # Get read length metadata from 'Experiment Settings.csv'
     if (args.parameter == "readLength"):
         readLength = metaFile.Read_Length.unique()
-        print(str(readLength))
+        print(str(readLength).strip('[]'))
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     main()