diff --git a/src/tei2imxml.py b/src/tei2imxml.py
index c160b82..04c48cd 100755
--- a/src/tei2imxml.py
+++ b/src/tei2imxml.py
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ def get_field(xml_tree, query_path, mandatory=False, findall=False, noformat=Fal
         else:
             tmp_field = xml_tree.xpath(query_path, namespaces=NS_MAP)
             if len(tmp_field) > 0:
-                return_string = tmp_field[0]
+                return_string = sanitize_data_string(tmp_field[0])
             else:
                 if mandatory is True:
                     sys.exit("Field stored in %s is mandatory. Exiting." % query_path)