diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b405991321f9c3288f48e071911e38f31b0b2cb1..f9364be4143569c62ed08e45d4305f378ec6b347 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -7,6 +7,16 @@ r:
 sudo: false
 cache: packages
 
+# dependency for gsl>copula>zinbwave
+addons:
+  apt:
+    packages:
+      - libgsl-dev
+
+install:
+  - R -e 'install.packages("devtools")'
+  - R -e 'devtools::install(dependencies = TRUE, upgrade_dependencies = TRUE)'
+
 after_success:
   - Rscript -e 'covr::codecov()'
 
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 4d977fa8dc3f0775a8cc208e3f22d82d54bbacc3..df9d09dcd2d9040b7e8717f30710aace59abad50 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -54,8 +54,8 @@ Suggests:
     scran,
     mfa,
     phenopath,
-    zinbwave,
-    BASiCS
+    BASiCS,
+    zinbwave
 biocViews: SingleCell, RNASeq, Transcriptomics, GeneExpression, Sequencing,
     Software
 URL: https://github.com/Oshlack/splatter