diff --git a/classes/category/Collector.php b/classes/category/Collector.php
index b85c768975e..74db393353f 100644
--- a/classes/category/Collector.php
+++ b/classes/category/Collector.php
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 use Illuminate\Support\LazyCollection;
 use PKP\core\interfaces\CollectorInterface;
 use PKP\plugins\Hook;
+use PKP\publication\PublicationCategory;
+
 
 /**
  * @template T of Category
@@ -136,9 +138,10 @@ public function getQueryBuilder(): Builder
         });
 
         $qb->when($this->publicationIds !== null, function ($query) {
-            $query->whereIn('c.category_id', function ($query) {
-                $query->select('category_id')->from('publication_categories')->whereIn('publication_id', $this->publicationIds);
-            });
+            $query->whereIn('c.category_id', PublicationCategory::select('category_id')
+                ->whereIn('publication_id', $this->publicationIds)
+                ->toBase()
+            );
         });
 
         $qb->when($this->parentIds !== null, function ($query) {
diff --git a/classes/category/DAO.php b/classes/category/DAO.php
index 7d1d69e1627..9912a3a5e4b 100644
--- a/classes/category/DAO.php
+++ b/classes/category/DAO.php
@@ -155,22 +155,4 @@ public function resequenceCategories(int $contextId, ?int $parentCategoryId = nu
         }
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Assign a publication to a category
-     */
-    public function insertPublicationAssignment(int $categoryId, int $publicationId)
-    {
-        DB::table('publication_categories')->insert([
-            'category_id' => $categoryId,
-            'publication_id' => $publicationId,
-        ]);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Delete the assignment of a category to a publication
-     */
-    public function deletePublicationAssignments(int $publicationId)
-    {
-        DB::table('publication_categories')->where('publication_id', '=', $publicationId)->delete();
-    }
 }
diff --git a/classes/publication/DAO.php b/classes/publication/DAO.php
index 3bfececa21d..8f0dd3821c7 100644
--- a/classes/publication/DAO.php
+++ b/classes/publication/DAO.php
@@ -441,36 +441,27 @@ protected function deleteControlledVocab(int $publicationId)
     /**
      * Set a publication's category property
      */
-    protected function setCategories(Publication $publication)
+    protected function setCategories(Publication $publication): void
     {
-        $publication->setData(
-            'categoryIds',
-            Repo::category()->getCollector()
-                ->filterByPublicationIds([$publication->getId()])
-                ->getIds()
-                ->toArray()
-        );
+        $categoryIds = PublicationCategory::withPublicationId($publication->getId())->pluck('category_id');
+        $publication->setData('categoryIds', $categoryIds);
     }
 
     /**
      * Save the assigned categories
      */
-    protected function saveCategories(Publication $publication)
+    protected function saveCategories(Publication $publication): void
     {
-        Repo::category()->dao->deletePublicationAssignments($publication->getId());
-        if (!empty($publication->getData('categoryIds'))) {
-            foreach ($publication->getData('categoryIds') as $categoryId) {
-                Repo::category()->dao->insertPublicationAssignment($categoryId, $publication->getId());
-            }
-        }
+        $categoryIds = (array) $publication->getData('categoryIds');
+        Repo::publication()->assignCategoriesToPublication($publication->getId(), $categoryIds);
     }
 
     /**
      * Delete the category assignments
      */
-    protected function deleteCategories(int $publicationId)
+    protected function deleteCategories(int $publicationId): void
     {
-        Repo::category()->dao->deletePublicationAssignments($publicationId);
+        PublicationCategory::where('publication_id', $publicationId)->delete();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/classes/publication/PublicationCategory.php b/classes/publication/PublicationCategory.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..eb670d27d22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/classes/publication/PublicationCategory.php
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * @file classes/publication/PublicationCategory.php
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2024 Simon Fraser University
+ * Copyright (c) 2024 John Willinsky
+ * Distributed under the GNU GPL v3. For full terms see the file docs/COPYING.
+ *
+ * @class PublicationCategory
+ *
+ * @brief Handles operations related to publication categories
+ */
+
+namespace PKP\publication;
+
+use Eloquence\Behaviours\HasCamelCasing;
+use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
+use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
+
+class PublicationCategory extends Model
+{
+    use HasCamelCasing;
+
+    protected $table = 'publication_categories';
+    protected $primaryKey = 'publication_category_id';
+    public $timestamps = false;
+
+    protected $fillable = [
+        'publication_id', 'category_id'
+    ];
+
+    /**
+     * Scope a query to only include records with a specific publicationId
+     */
+    public function scopeWithPublicationId(Builder $query, int $publicationId): Builder
+    {
+        return $query->where('publication_id', $publicationId);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Scope a query to only include records with specific categoryIds
+     *
+     * @param int[] $categoryIds Array of category IDs
+     */
+    public function scopeWithCategoryIds(Builder $query, array $categoryIds): Builder
+    {
+        return $query->whereIn('category_id', $categoryIds);
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/classes/publication/Repository.php b/classes/publication/Repository.php
index c829375ab29..56dc336996d 100644
--- a/classes/publication/Repository.php
+++ b/classes/publication/Repository.php
@@ -766,6 +766,23 @@ protected function getErrorMessageOverrides(): array
         ];
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Assign categories to a publication.
+     *
+     * @param int[] $categoryIds
+     */
+    public function assignCategoriesToPublication(int $publicationId, array $categoryIds): void
+    {
+        $records = array_map(fn ($categoryId) => ['publication_id' => $publicationId, 'category_id' => $categoryId], $categoryIds);
+
+        PublicationCategory::upsert($records, ['publication_id', 'category_id']);
+
+        // delete categories that are no longer assigned
+        PublicationCategory::where('publication_id', $publicationId)
+            ->whereNotIn('category_id', $categoryIds)
+            ->delete();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Create all DOIs associated with the publication.
      */
diff --git a/classes/submission/Collector.php b/classes/submission/Collector.php
index b2c73684adb..a6e70fa18c1 100644
--- a/classes/submission/Collector.php
+++ b/classes/submission/Collector.php
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
 use PKP\search\SubmissionSearch;
 use PKP\security\Role;
 use PKP\submission\reviewRound\ReviewRound;
+use PKP\publication\PublicationCategory;
+
 
 /**
  * @template T of Submission
@@ -623,8 +625,11 @@ public function getQueryBuilder(): Builder
         }
 
         if (isset($this->categoryIds)) {
-            $q->join('publication_categories as pc', 's.current_publication_id', '=', 'pc.publication_id')
-                ->whereIn('pc.category_id', $this->categoryIds);
+            $publicationIds = PublicationCategory::withCategoryIds($this->categoryIds)
+                                ->select('publication_id')
+                                ->toBase();
+        
+            $q->whereIn('s.current_publication_id', $publicationIds);
         }
 
         $q = $this->buildReviewStageQueries($q);
diff --git a/schemas/publication.json b/schemas/publication.json
index 025f0d3fd58..2e4864a16ca 100644
--- a/schemas/publication.json
+++ b/schemas/publication.json
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
 		"categoryIds": {
 			"type": "array",
 			"apiSummary": true,
+			"readOnly": true,
 			"items": {
 				"type": "integer"
 			}