There is limited availability of reliable and valid information on alternative methods to the use of experimental animals from open access data banks. In 1989, the Centre for Documentation and Evaluation of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments (ZEBET) at the German Federal Health Office started a data bank to meet requirements of the German Animal Protection Act. In comparison with other data banks in this field, ZEBET's data bank comprises two types of evaluation: firstly, whether a specific method contributes to the Three Rs concept of Russell & Burch, i.e. replacement, reduction and refinement, and secondly, whether the method meets the criteria of validation as outlined in the report of the Amden workshop on validation of toxicity test procedures. This information is primarily available to the scientific and ethical commissions which have been introduced by the Animal Protection Act in order to reduce the numbers of animals used in experiments in Germany. However, other users of the ZEBET data bank are also welcome, e.g. local animal protection officers, interested scientists and the public. Although the language of ZEBET's data bank is German, the documentation also contains English summaries, key words, and updated lists of references. Here, the concept of ZEBET's data bank and its scientific background are described and compared with other alternatives data banks.