diff --git a/workflow/rna-seq.nf b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
index f76abd03ebffe26d14fd85487b7db33efc9286db..51f80be73efe935f7e2eca406d508507c037a709 100644
--- a/workflow/rna-seq.nf
+++ b/workflow/rna-seq.nf
@@ -842,7 +842,7 @@ process inferMetadata {
       fi
     fi
 
-    if !\${speciesError}
+    if [ "\${speciesError}" == false ]
     then
       # infer experimental setting from dedup bam
       echo -e "LOG: infer experimental setting from dedup bam" >> ${repRID}.inferMetadata.log