diff --git a/fsl/utils/fslsub.py b/fsl/utils/fslsub.py
index 81a1fc942a6fe7192d13c70faac2931c2e15bd05..2037a87a901904fe8d964c90066aba7974632c1a 100644
--- a/fsl/utils/fslsub.py
+++ b/fsl/utils/fslsub.py
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ def submit(*command,
     :return:             string of submitted job id
     """
 
-    from fsl.utils.run import runfsl, _prepareArgs
+    from fsl.utils.run import runfsl, prepareArgs
 
     base_cmd = ['fsl_sub']
 
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ def submit(*command,
         base_cmd.append('-s')
         base_cmd.extend(multi_threaded)
 
-    base_cmd.extend(_prepareArgs(command))
+    base_cmd.extend(prepareArgs(command))
 
     return runfsl(*base_cmd).strip()
 
diff --git a/fsl/utils/run.py b/fsl/utils/run.py
index 3fb7d979eb9848ed8c4a878a53edd6b0c39eb052..12cc036067d7c502afbca6cd90153c38ced00859 100644
--- a/fsl/utils/run.py
+++ b/fsl/utils/run.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ def dryrun(*args):
         DRY_RUN = oldval
 
 
-def _prepareArgs(args):
+def prepareArgs(args):
     """Used by the :func:`run` function. Ensures that the given arguments is a
     list of strings.
     """
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ def run(*args, **kwargs):
     logStdout      = log   .get('stdout',   None)
     logStderr      = log   .get('stderr',   None)
     logCmd         = log   .get('cmd',      None)
-    args           = _prepareArgs(args)
+    args           = prepareArgs(args)
 
     if not bool(submit):
         submit = None
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ def runfsl(*args, **kwargs):
     if not prefixes:
         raise FSLNotPresent('$FSLDIR is not set - FSL cannot be found!')
 
-    args = _prepareArgs(args)
+    args = prepareArgs(args)
     for prefix in prefixes:
         cmdpath = op.join(prefix, args[0])
         if op.isfile(cmdpath):