An annotated paste buffer defines a first field for copied information, and a second field for source information relating to the copied information. A copy/paste mechanism in accordance with the preferred embodiments copies the information the user selects into the first field, and gathers the appropriate information relating to the source of the copied information into the second field in the annotated paste buffer. A user may set cut/copy preferences to determine what information is gathered from the source document and placed in the second field in the annotated paste buffer. In addition, a user may set paste preferences to determine which of the source information, if any, in the second field is incorporated into a citation to the source of the information when the information is pasted into another document. In this manner a user can determine what source information is gathered, and can separately filter this information to provide citations that are tailored to different applications.