I had this request from an editor: she asks if the categories can be hidden (not displayed) to the author/submitter? Similar to the possibility, in the metadata configuration section, of specifying “Do not request ____ metadata from the author during submission.”
I guess this is because the journal has a long list of pre-coordinated and well structured categories and they do not want the author to be somehow confused by so many categories and take time to go through the whole list and evaluate which categories suit best and which doesn’t. This is more of an indexing task and they want to do it themselves (the editors).
I just wanted to say that I agree completely. The category function is such a great feature for editors to be able to categorize the articles, but I also wish it could be hidden on the submission form - just like you can do with other metadata items.