Not only ... but also
I would avoid doing so as the first sentence may seem a little awkward since it doesn't present a complete thought and instead ends abruptly. At the very least, this might be an appropriate place to use a semicolon as the two sentences are very closely related. Revising this kind of thing into a normal sentence is fairly easy (in your example: "...thus not only fills a glaring research gap but also provides a much needed sociological account...") and reads much more naturally.