Author(s) of this paper may load this reprint on their own web site or institutional repository provided that this cover page is retained. Republication of this article or its storage in electronic databases other than as specified above is not permitted without prior permission in writing from the IUCr.For further information see http://journals.iucr.org/services/authorrights.html Many research topics in condensed matter research, materials science and the life sciences make use of crystallographic methods to study crystalline and non-crystalline matter with neutrons, X-rays and electrons. Articles published in the Journal of Applied Crystallography focus on these methods and their use in identifying structural and diffusioncontrolled phase transformations, structure-property relationships, structural changes of defects, interfaces and surfaces, etc. Developments of instrumentation and crystallographic apparatus, theory and interpretation, numerical analysis and other related subjects are also covered. The journal is the primary place where crystallographic computer program information is published.Crystallography Journals Online is available from journals.iucr.org J. Appl. Cryst. (2009 (1989), 22, 601-605], who have advocated the use of a diffractometerindependent definition of the azimuthal angle to specify the diffraction geometry of a Bragg reflection. It is here proposed that one additional angle , which is also based on a diffractometer-independent definition, is needed to encode the direction of linear polarization for those experiments where this quantity is of importance. This definition is then extended to the cases of partially and/or elliptically polarized X-ray beams, and the use of three normalized Stokes parameters, P 1 , P 2 and P 3 , together with , is advocated in order to characterize exhaustively the polarization state of the incident beam. The conventions proposed here present a general, unambiguous and economical means of encoding the information about the diffraction geometry, without the need to record any further information about the instrument, crystal orientation matrix and goniometer angles. Data-processing software using these definitions to analyse polarization-dependent phenomena becomes instrument-independent and completely general. These methods have been implemented in the macromolecular phasing program SHARP for exploiting the polarization anisotropy of anomalous scattering in protein crystals.