  The use of polarimetric techniques is nowadays widespread among solar and
stellar astronomers. However, notwithstanding the recommandations that have
often been made about the publication of polarimetric results in the
astronomical literature, we are still far from having a standard protocol on
which to conform. In this paper we review the basic definitions and the
physical significance of the Stokes parameters, and we propose a
standardization of the measurement of polarized radiation.
