The natural language facilities of ResearchCyc include a rich lexicon, multiple parsers, and an English-language generation capability. (Note that Version 1.0 of OpenCyc contain English strings corresponding to Cyc terms, but no additional NL capabilities.) ResearchCyc also includes additional functionality, such as Semantic Knowledge Source Integration (SKSI), a Java-based Fact Entry Tool, a Query Formulator, and an ontology exporter.

1. Print the license, fill it out, and have it signed by an authorized representative of your organization. For applications from academia, the representative should be a department head or higher, rather than the individual researcher. Further, if the license signed at the level of an academic department, use should be restricted to users authorized by that department.
2. Fax the signed license to Cycorp at +1 512-342-4030. Make sure the organization name is legible. Whether or not you include a cover page, it would be useful for you to write an email address somewhere on the material you send.
3. Send an email to rcyc@cyc.com. Mention that you have faxed a license, and include a brief (approximately 2 paragraphs) description of your area of research and how you might use ResearchCyc in your work. If any of your project description (or the fact that you are using ResearchCyc) should be kept confidential, please indicate this. Otherwise, we will assume we can include this information on our website. Also, as a service to fellow researchers, we would like to include contact information for someone from your organization on a password protected page that only other ResearchCyc users may access. Let us know if you don't want to be included on this list.
4. Most requests will be processed within 1 week from the time the email and fax are received. If we approve the license, we will create an ftp account for you that you can use to download ResearchCyc.

License Comparison

• ResearchCyc is available under a no cost license that, among other things, requires the licensee to restrict access of the knowledge base content and the ResearchCyc knowledge server to authorized users only.
• While ResearchCyc is licensed to qualifying organizations and individuals, it is generally easier for an organization to qualify than an individual. Please attempt to apply as part of an organization before resorting to submitting a license signed by an individual.
• Cycorp encourages publication of results of working with ResearchCyc. If you feel limited by the disclosure terms (esp. 4.2), contact us for a waiver. We would especially like to encourage graduate thesis work involving ResearchCyc.
• The OpenCyc knowledge base (KB) content is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2. The OpenCyc inference engine is a free binary (no source code is provided) that provides a way for users to access and manipulate the open source KB.
• Cycorp intends to release to OpenCyc all of the Cyc (non-propietary) concept terms, to ensure that the ontologies developed in Cyc will be compatible with those developed using OpenCyc.