diff --git a/eos/options.py b/eos/options.py
index cd11738..10db230 100644
--- a/eos/options.py
+++ b/eos/options.py
@@ -434,7 +434,7 @@ class ReflectivityReductionConfig(ArgParsable):
                 'group': 'input data',
                 'help': 'apply convolution on lambda axes to smooth the normalization data, useful for low statistics'})
     scale: List[float] = field(
-            default_factory=lambda: [1.],
+            default_factory=lambda: [],
             metadata={
                 'short': 's',
                 'group': 'data manicure',
diff --git a/eos/projection.py b/eos/projection.py
index f034ae6..c9db818 100644
--- a/eos/projection.py
+++ b/eos/projection.py
@@ -248,9 +248,9 @@ class LZProjection(ProjectionInterface):
     def scale(self, factor: float):
         if not self.is_normalized:
             raise ValueError("Dataset needs to be normalized, first")
-        self.data.ref *= factor
-        self.data.err *= factor
-        self.norm_monitor /= factor
+        self.data.ref /= factor
+        self.data.err /= factor
+        self.norm_monitor *= factor
 
     def project_on_qz(self):
         if not self.is_normalized:
diff --git a/eos/reduction_reflectivity.py b/eos/reduction_reflectivity.py
index ce8fc3b..6168c38 100644
--- a/eos/reduction_reflectivity.py
+++ b/eos/reduction_reflectivity.py
@@ -204,11 +204,12 @@ class ReflectivityReduction:
         logging.info(f'    monitor = {self.monitor:8.2f} {MONITOR_UNITS[self.config.experiment.monitorType]}')
 
         proj:LZProjection = self.project_on_lz()
-        try:
-            scale = self.config.reduction.scale[i]
-        except IndexError:
-            scale = self.config.reduction.scale[-1]
-        proj.scale(scale)
+        if not self.config.reduction.is_default('scale'):
+            try:
+                scale = self.config.reduction.scale[i]
+            except IndexError:
+                scale = self.config.reduction.scale[-1]
+            proj.scale(scale)
 
         if 'Rqz.ort' in self.config.output.outputFormats:
             headerRqz = self.header.orso_header()