Hello. I’m writing a thesis on lightmapping and was wondering if I am allowed to use images from the unreal engine docs in my non-commercial thesis with proper credit of course? The only thing related to this topic I found so far is Epic Games Fan Content Policy | Rules For Content Creation - Epic Games. However, I do not really know what is meant by “fan art”. I would not consider a thesis on lightmapping “fan art”.
Greetings @anonymous_user_c954b1d2 !
We see that this is your first time posting! 
Welcome to the Unreal Engine Community!
Yes, the Fan Content Policy will not provide you the answer you are seeking, as this is regarding art. However, you will find what you need in the Epic Games ToS.
Intellectual Property Rights
The Services, including all content, features, and functionality thereof, are owned by Epic, its licensors, or other providers of such material and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.
You are permitted to use the Services for your personal, non-commercial use only or legitimate business purposes related to your role as a current or prospective customer of Epic. Except as provided below, you must not copy, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, or transmit any of the material obtained through the Services, or delete, or alter any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices from copies of materials from the Services. However, if you are otherwise in compliance with these Terms, you are permitted to use, elsewhere and on other websites, an unaltered copy of portions of the content that is publicly available on the Website for the limited, non-commercial purpose of discussing such content.
I hope this helps! I wish you success with your thesis and have a wonderful weekend! 
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Thank you for your kind reply. There is a lot of law terminology in that text. What does it mean in my use case?
If what you worry about is copyright, then you should also be aware of the “fair use” exemption, where small excerpts of a larger work are generally held to be okay to re-publish (with appropriate source credit) for legitimate academic or review purposes. This is especially true if you refer to the material itself, rather than just re-using explanatory material.
While I’m not a lawyer, you may be able to check with someone at your school for what the particular schools’ policy is on these things (e g, maybe the school has a legal department that can help you walk through the options.)