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Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the share of coronavirus publications and its citation-based indicators in various journal impact factor quartiles to discover their relationship and analyze the advantages of Q1 publications. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric analyses of world coronavirus research publications (articles and reviews) indexed in Web of Science database over 20 years among four journal quartiles were performed. Findings The publication and citation shares in various journal quartiles were decreased in the following order: Q1 > Q2 > Q3 > Q4. World coronavirus publications/citations share in Q1 journals were on average 1.78/4.18, 2.75/7.90 and 5.07/27.79 times greater than Q2, Q3 and Q4 publications, respectively. Moreover, similar patterns were obtained for various research performance dimensions: impact, excellence, corporate interest and funding indicators. These indicators of Q1 publications were much better than the corresponding values for world overall and infectious disease literature. Thus, there was a clear research performance advantage of Q1 coronavirus publications. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the journal impact factor quartiles and its impact on coronavirus research performance. The results/findings of this study are useful for many stakeholders to enhance the research influence by considering journal impact factor quartiles especially Q1 journals.