credential vs papers

credential and papers both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
credential	Yes	No	No	No
papers	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, papers is a hypernym of credential; that is, papers is a word with a broader meaning than credential:

credential: a document attesting to the truth of certain stated facts
papers: writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature)

Other hypernyms of credential include document, written document.

credential (noun)	papers (noun)
a document attesting to the truth of certain stated facts	writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature)