It was an absolute pleasure to attend the recent Annual Scientific Meeting in South Africa and our congratulations go to all who made it a success. At the ‘Research in Anaesthesia’ session, we discussed what makes a paper popular and the important role of social media in modern academic publishing. The attention a paper receives on social media is something we take very seriously, as it provides instant feedback on likely long-term impact and, more importantly, an opportunity to share and discuss. ‘Impact Factor’ is a more traditionally cited metric, and this month we are delighted to announce a healthy increase in ours to.