def normalizeScifloArgs(args):
    """Normalize sciflo args to either a list or dict."""

    if isinstance(args, dict) or \
            (isinstance(args, (list, tuple)) and (len(args) != 1)):
        return args
    elif isinstance(args, (list, tuple)):
        if isinstance(args[0], (list, tuple, dict)):
            return args[0]
        else:
            return args
    else:
        raise RuntimeError(
            "Unrecognized type for sciflo args: %s" % type(args))