AIP Publishing's mission is to be a vital catalyst in the work of physical scientists around the world, as well as a trusted partner to our communities. That mission has never been more important than in 2020. When the entire world looked to science for solutions to the global coronavirus pandemic, our communities responded to the challenge with awe-inspiring speed, publishing a wide range of pandemic-related articles in AIP Publishing journals.
The journal Physics of Fluids alone published our 10 most highly shared articles of the year, all of them advancing our understanding of how the virus is spread. Our Scilight summaries made those findings even more accessible to the general public. And one article in particular, on the transmission of the virus due to flushing toilets, helped to raise public awareness and change behavior around the globe.
2020 was also the year when the glaring problem of racial equality finally burst into broad public consciousness, and we're listening closely to our communities as we take bold strides to make science more equitable. We have a long way to go to achieve gender parity and racial equity in the physical sciences, but we are committed to ensuring that our publishing program reflects the diversity of global science. We are taking action to build gender parity, and diversify the geographical representation of our editors and editorial boards, and to reduce bias in peer review.
This year, three women were awarded Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry. While this is encouraging news, it's important to remember that only 10 women in total have received this honor ever since the prizes were first awarded in 1901. We must do better. One important way that science can be more equitable is to make it more open, and AIP Publishing is continuing to drive greater openness in the physical sciences.
In 2020, we began asking authors to make the data behind their research open, so all parts of the article that are critical to reproducing results and creating new research are just as accessible. We're working hard to ensure that AIP Publishing supports and serves the physical sciences community even better in the future. We've launched two new journals this year Biophysics Reviews and Chemical Physics Reviews for researchers whose work is increasingly interdisciplinary, who use the tools of physics to tackle problems in biology and chemistry.
And our first collection of digital books is designed to help emerging scientists keep up to date with the latest advances. We're proud of the role we play in supporting AIP and helping them succeed in their vision. And as we look to the future, we envision a world where the work of a diverse community of scientists around the globe is curated, interconnected and accessible to help advance discoveries that benefit the physical sciences and help solve the most pressing challenges of our age.