Throughout your academic career you will need to find reliable sources for many things including papers and research. Finding credible sources is extremely important in order to have a well written paper, accurate information, and access to find the resource in the future if needed. To ensure that your source is credible, it needs to be reliable, be of good quality, and have good utility. These are especially important to consider now that most resources used these days are found online.
In order to determine if your resource is reliable, it needs to have the contact info available. It also needs to have the credentials of the author so that you know whoever wrote is knows what they are talking about and is educated. Your source also needs to be from a publisher or organization with a good reputation. If your source in an article, having a peer review of it may also be helpful.
The quality of your source can be determined if it is making broad generalizations or if it actually provides some detail. It is also a good sign if your source is up to date and consistent throughout its content. The information needs to be well written and without a biased opinin because this can alter your view while you are writing your paper. Lastly, it needs to have citations of all the resources it used.
For your article to have utility, it needs to of course be related to the topic you are interested in. It also should be written for the appropriate audience (at least college level), and provide a good amount of detail.