A generalized spherical-harmonic description of the texture for polycrystalline materials has been implemented in a multiple-phase/multiple-data-set Rietveld refinement code. It has been tested using two sets of neutron time-of-flight data taken from a standard calcite sample previously used for a round-robin study [Wenk (1991). J. Appl. Cryst. 24, 920–927] and has been shown to give similar texture results as those obtained from individual pole figures. Simultaneous refinement of the calcite crystal structure including anisotropic thermal parameters gives results essentially identical to a recent single-crystal X-ray study.