diff --git a/R/checkIfFile.R b/R/checkIfFile.R
index 0f14aef..7ebf4d5 100644
--- a/R/checkIfFile.R
+++ b/R/checkIfFile.R
@@ -4,35 +4,29 @@
 #  either a path to a data file or a data object in data.frame or data.table
 #  form.
 # @param input_file (object or data.frame) The filepath/object to be checked.
-# @param dont_check_names if TRUE (default) names are not checked, otherwise
-# names will be checked
+# @param dont_check_names if TRUE names are not checked, otherwise
+# names will be checked (default)
 # @param is.evidence (logical) Whether or not the file to be read in is an
 # evidence file. This will assign proper classes to the evidence file
 # when being read in.
 # @return An R data object
 # @keywords internal, file, evidence, input
 .artms_checkIfFile <- function(input_file, 
-                               dont_check_names = TRUE,
+                               dont_check_names = FALSE,
                                is.evidence = FALSE) {
   # check if already a data.frame or data.table
   if (is.data.table(input_file)) {
-    x <- data.table(input_file)
+    x <- data.table(input_file, check.names = !dont_check_names)
   } else if (is.data.frame(input_file)) {
-    x <- data.frame(input_file)
+    x <- data.frame(input_file, check.names = !dont_check_names)
   } else if (is.vector(input_file)){
     if(length(input_file) == 1){
       if(!file.exists(input_file)){
         stop("The file ", input_file, " does not exist! ")
       }else{
-        if(dont_check_names){
-          x <- read.delim(input_file, 
-                          stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
-        }else{
-          x <- read.delim(input_file, 
-                          stringsAsFactors = FALSE,
-                          check.names = FALSE)
-        }
-        
+        x <- read.delim(input_file,
+                        stringsAsFactors = FALSE,
+                        check.names = !dont_check_names)
       }
     }else{
       stop("The input object is not valid")
diff --git a/R/protein2SiteConversion.R b/R/protein2SiteConversion.R
index a1277ed..4c9e040 100644
--- a/R/protein2SiteConversion.R
+++ b/R/protein2SiteConversion.R
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ then make the argument 'overwrite_evidence = TRUE'")
   ## map mod sites in data to index
   if(verbose) message("--- OPENING EVIDENCE FILE ")
   ## read in maxq. data
-  maxq_data <- .artms_checkIfFile(evidence_file, dont_check_names = FALSE)
+  maxq_data <- .artms_checkIfFile(evidence_file, dont_check_names = TRUE)
   maxq_data <- as.data.table(maxq_data)
   
   # Check maxquant version: