diff --git a/parser/parser-big-dft/bigdftparser/versions/bigdft18/mainparser.py b/parser/parser-big-dft/bigdftparser/versions/bigdft18/mainparser.py
index 3f9e4f3492930817efe073275b4bfc0de1aeb236..78d7d1091e9f6e7c118cccacfba23e8a6b698a85 100644
--- a/parser/parser-big-dft/bigdftparser/versions/bigdft18/mainparser.py
+++ b/parser/parser-big-dft/bigdftparser/versions/bigdft18/mainparser.py
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ class BigDFTMainParser(AbstractBaseParser):
         directly into memory.
         """
         self.prepare()
+        self.print_json_header()
         with open(self.file_path, "r") as fin:
             try:
                 # Open default sections and output default information
@@ -70,6 +71,8 @@ class BigDFTMainParser(AbstractBaseParser):
             except YAMLError:
                 raise Exception("There was a syntax error in the BigDFT YAML output file.")
 
+        self.print_json_footer()
+
     def generate_root_nodes(self, loader):
         # Ignore the first two events
         loader.get_event()  # StreamStarEvetn